


Through Gold and Iron Chains

by AgapantoBlu



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Blood, Captivity, Corsair!Himuro, Corsair!Kagami, Ear Piercing, Emperor!Nijimura, Fake Character Death, Kraken!Ogiwara, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mermaid!Momoi, Merman!Mayuzumi, Merman!Mibuchi, Mild torture, Minor Character Death, NavyOfficer!Akashi, NavyOfficer!Haizaki, NavyOfficer!Kise, NavySoldier!Takao, Pirate!Aomine, Pirate!Hanamiya, Pirate!Murasakibara, Pirates!AU, Pirates!KirisakiDaiichi, SeaWizard!Ogiwara, Violence, but really mild, doctor!midorima - Freeform, merman!kuroko
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-05-17 09:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 66,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5864551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgapantoBlu/pseuds/AgapantoBlu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When their ship gets attacked by the pirates of the Kirisaki Daichi crew, both Akashi Seijuro and Kise Ryouta - Officers of the Imperial Navy of Teiko - are taken prisoners and reduced to slavery at the oars of their enemies. Attempting to escape, they get the help of some of the other prisoners and stumble into the only weakness of captain Hanamiya Makoto: the singing voice of the mysterious captive ship-boy Kuroko Tetsuya.</p><p>In the end, everybody has his secrets to keep or tell.</p><p>***</p><p>[Basically, Pirate!AU and why you shouldn't let me watch "Pirates of the Caribbean". Also, Akashi drowns a damn lot of times, but somehow he's still alive.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part I

**Through Gold and Iron Chains**

**Part I**

Akashi did see it coming. Even more, he did warn everybody. He did tell the governor that route wasn’t safe, he did tell his superior not to bend to the man’s foolish request and, when they both had just ignored him, he had told his crew not to lower their guard. But did they listen to him?

No, they didn’t, and that was why he was watching his ship slowly sinking, violent flames desperately rising to the sky but inevitably dying as water engulfed the remnants of wood and flesh.

Akashi was aching everywhere. His left shoulder had been deeply wounded, just like his right leg, and when almost all of his men had been wiped off and he had been surrounded by six enemies he had ended up falling. Still, instead of being killed, he had found himself roughly handled, tied with a rope that bound his wrists behind his back before wrapping tightly around his chest, and he had been shoved into one of the jolly boats. 

The only relief he could feel was that his second in command, the only man he could really say to know among the crew, was safe beside him. He was passed out and his nape had a superficial cut that had stained his blond hair in blood, but Kise Ryouta looked almost better than Akashi himself, with his clothes soaked in his and enemies’ blood and raw bandages that were barely enough for him not to die for the loss of vital fluid.

“Look up there.” Akashi hissed when a hand roughly grabbed his hair and pulled his head backward to force him to look up and ahead. His eyes glared dagger at the black flag with skull and crossed bones placidly floating in the wind. The pirate at his back chuckled at his defiant attitude, “That will be your new _home_ , Sir Captain.”

The Jolly Roger flag ignored Akashi’s spit in its direction as the little boat approached the sailing ship.

***

Akashi only caught a glimpse of the pirates’ captain when he got on the infamous Kirisaki Daiichi’s deck, but the man just smirked seeing the two hostages his subordinates had brought. A simple gesture of his hand and both the men where brought belowdecks and thrown into an empty cell.

There were many of those, far too many for Akashi to feel any reassured, and most of those were packed full. They couldn’t have been wider than four square meters, but still each one hosted from five to seven people.

Watching the state of those prisoners, how sweaty and tired they looked and the pulsing veins of their arms, Akashi finally understood how the Kirisaki had managed to escape all the Navy’s ships up ‘till then.

Disposable oarsmen. And a lot of them. The pirates probably took as many prisoners as many of those poor souls died of fatigue to reach the prey boat; since they didn’t have to care about how many survived, they could push them even further than their limit.

He muttered a curse between his clenched teeth, but then he turned to make sure of Kise’s conditions.

When he carefully caressed the other’s nape, he was relieved finding that the wound had already stopped bleeding but there wasn’t much else he could determine since the dried blood was making it impossible for him to examine the cut properly.

They had been given only a single bowl with some water, so Akashi tasted it to make sure it was potable and then he carefully slipped some into Kise’s mouth, trying to at least make him drink a bit. It wasn’t safe to use it on the wound since he wasn’t sure of how clean it was, but he couldn’t afford to be picky or to let his only sure ally die of dehydration.

He had just laid the other’s head down on the floor, accommodating his form into a lying position that would spare his nape, when one of the pirates that caught them, the one with black hair slicked backward and a mole in the very centre of his forehead, got in. He was humming some pirate song as he walked past Akashi’s cell to open the door of one slightly deeper into the belowdecks.

“Some work for you, doctor!” he called almost mockingly and when a man, a really tall one, emerged from the cell the pirate pushed him toward the exit to the deck. “Come on, if you’re fast enough with our friends, Hanamiya will let you tend to the new guys before we use them.”

Akashi’s fists clenched and he gritted his teeth, eyes glaring at the pirate, but he forced himself to keep silent, not daring to risk to be deprived of medical assistance when Kise still had to regain consciousness.

The couple of men walked before him, but for a second before they disappeared upstairs the prisoner look at him through the dirty lenses of his glasses.

Green met red and then they disappeared.

***

The pirate brought the doctor downstairs again some hours later, when Akashi had grown restless at his friend’s lack of response.

He felt relief rushing in his veins when the door of his cell was opened, but he refused to show it and just stared at the pirate, vowing to kill him with his hands when the man grinned and pointed his chin at Ryouta’s body.

“I hope you’ll call him unfit for the oars.” he grinned, “We haven’t seen a port in weeks now and he looks pretty enough for the crew to not care about what’s in between his legs.”

Akashi snapped, jumping on his feet and throwing himself at the man, uncaring of the pulsing in his leg, but the other was fast in drawing a dagger and pointing it at his throat.

“Eager, aren’t we?” the man mocked and Seijuro’s breaths were deep and heavy as he tried to calm himself enough to think rationally about something.

“He’ll be ready for the oars soon enough.” Akashi moved only his eyes when the doctor suddenly intervened and even if the man, knelt on the floor, was only looking at Kise he was almost sure he had butted in for his sake too.

The pirate clicked his tongue at the news, dropping his smile, but in the end he shrugged, stepped back and closed the cell door, humming again as he vanished upstairs.

Akashi glared at the manhole to the deck for some moments more before turning to the doctor and his friend.

“It didn’t look like a deep wound, but he has still to wake up.” he offered, but the man shook his head.

“There’s nothing broken or too much damaged, nanodayo.” he retorted and Akashi didn’t question the weird way to end the sentence because he was too caught up into taking in the doctor's appearance.

He had green hair that were stuck to his skin by sweat, sign that he too probably had been forced to be at the oars, and green irises hidden behind the slightly-crooked glasses. He was unbelievably tall, but his pale complexion didn’t really speak of health and well-being. He was covered in dirt, yet his hands were extremely clean and that was relieving considering he was touching wounds.

He was fast with Kise, washing the blood away from his hair and assuring the blond man would have come back to his senses soon enough, but when he turned to Akashi he glared at his ridiculous patch-ups.

Seijuro let him open the slices of cloths that had been used to cover his shoulder and stood completely still as the doctor pulled some sewing material out of a little bag he had been carrying the whole time. The pain was absurd, but Akashi bit his tongue and kept completely silent through the whole ordeal. After that, his mind was too dizzy to realize exactly what the doctor did to his leg. He only knew that at a certain point he poured some wine on it and it stung like Hell. Other bandages were applied and when he was done, the man pulled out some new gauze from the bag, washed his hands with some of the remaining wine and then wrapped his left one with the bandage.

“It would be troublesome if I were to hurt my hand.” the man explained under Seijuro’s scrutinizing gaze and the red-haired man nodded, “I am Midorima Shintarou.”

“Akashi Seijuro.” he offered briefly, then he pointed at his friend, “Kise Ryouta.”

The doctor nodded and no words were shared after. Akashi laid with his good shoulder against one of the walls and when his temple touched the metal bars he was already asleep from the burning pain.

***

He woke up feeling worse and better at the same time. His wounds were pulsing and hurting, but he could feel that it was the pain from healing so he endured it. When he opened his eyes, Midorima was giving Kise the remnant of their water bowl and Akashi’s throat complained, dried, but he ignored it.

“When will they get us to the oars?” he asked as the first thing and Midorima looked at him with a frown but lowered his eyes back on Ryouta just the following second.

“It will take him some more days.” he only said and Akashi got the hidden meaning.

He was awake and apparently strong enough to attack one of the pirates. The very next time they’d need speed, he would be immediately used.

He refused to let the thought discourage him. He was to get out of there.

“How many prisoners?” he asked, already plotting, but the doctor shook his head.

“Around sixty people, but they are changed every so often it’s impossible to organize a rebellion, nanodayo.”

‘Impossible’ wasn’t a word Akashi was familiar with, so he chose to ignore the doctor’s pessimism and he turned to look at the cells.

He caught it only with the corner of his eyes, almost by mistake, but the flash of pale blue in the dark hold made his head turn back to the manhole painfully fast.

It was a kid. He wasn’t probably much younger than his twenty-six years, but Akashi refused to consider such a frail looking creature a man. He wore worn out brown pants and a loose shirt that must have been passed down to him from someone who was around twice in size, under a black leather waistcoat. His hair were the same shade of a crystal sky and stood ruffled on his head as if the wind had played hide and seek between those locks. With big round eyes the shade of deep sea at the horizon he was staring back at Akashi with the most apathetic expression the other had ever seen.

He was carrying a bucket, holding it with both his hands right before his knees so he kept on accidentally kicking it, making it resound with metallic clangs. He was careful not to spill water, though, but Akashi was sure his legs must have been covered in bruises already.

The kid stopped before their cell and laid the bucket on the floor. Midorima pushed the bowl close to the gates and the kid refilled it with water from a ladle, silently, before getting up and moving to another cell.

He shot a look at Seijuro, who just stared back with a frown, before whispering something in a low voice to the blue-haired tanned man who approached him with the bowl for his cell.

“That guy is Kuroko.” Midorima whispered lowly, “He’s not really a prisoner, but not really one of the crew either, nanodayo. He was for the oars, but turned out too weak for that work. He gets tasked with duties like bringing us food or water and cleaning the cells latrines when we’re at the oars.”

“Is he staying here of his own will?” That was the only thing Akashi needed to know, the only criteria he was using to sort enemies and allies.

“I only know what I heard from others; he was already here when I was taken and by now there is just a handful of persons left who were here before me, nanodayo.” Midorima gestured with his chin at the blue-haired man, “He’s one of those few. Aomine Daiki. But he’s always on the front rows with a surveillant on him because he has quite a temper. Talking to him isn’t easy.”

Kuroko emptied his bucket and quietly went back upstair to refill it.

***

Kise woke up in the evening, but he was delirious and had a fever. They had left him in the cell without medical help long enough for an infection to start and Akashi was almost sure the pirates wouldn’t waste time and resources in trying to heal him, not when they could far more easily substitute him.

Midorima seemed to agree with him, because when dinner came, brought by Kuroko, he whispered something to the guy as he came to give them their share.

Kuroko’s face didn’t change in the slightest, but the ladle looked filler and the soup reached the edge of the bowl the three of them had to share.

***

During nighttime, when darkness was so thick it could have been cut by a knife, only Akashi’s senses were sharp enough to catch the little rustle of subtle steps on the wood and his eyes had to strive but finally found the figure kneeling beside Midorima’s form.

The doctor was sleeping with his back against one of the iron grates of the cell, arms crossed before his chest, and the figure had it easy to slip something through the bars and lay it beside the man.

Akashi let it be, because it seemed all pretty innocuous and because he was almost sure that there was only one person with that physical built on a pirate ship. 

When the figure opened the manhole and slipped back on the deck, the moon shone silver on his teal hair.

***

Midorima didn’t look surprised when he found the little goatskin beside his thigh. On the contrary, he was fast opening it and pouring its content gently on Kise’s head.

The smell of wine filled the cell.

***

Midorima hid his secret treasure under one of the ragged cloths that were supposed to work as blankets for the prisoners, but that probably were only refuses the pirates had to get rid of. He did it just in time because when the manhole opened it wasn’t Kuroko who jumped in all excitedly.

“Come on, sirs! Time to work!” yelled a man with thick black brows, a mocking dangerous smile and gray eyes that shone with both craziness and calculating coldness too.

Even if his clothes and the hat on his head hadn’t given him away, Akashi couldn’t forget the face of the man who had ordered the boarding of his ship and the consequent massacre of basically all his soldiers.

Hanamiya Makoto, the captain of the Kirisaki Dai Ichi, stopped just before their cell to look at him.

“Captain Akashi Seijuro, of the Imperial Navy of Teiko.” he acknowledged, taking his hat off and offering a bow, “I am displeased that these are the circumstances in which we meet, but you can rest assured I will make sure your permanence on my boat will be as pleasant as possible.”

Akashi frowned slightly, feeling something off in the sudden change of mind of the captain — because it surely didn’t look like he had tried to make anything pleasant in the past thirty hours or so —, but before he could say anything the bowing figure of Hanamiya started trembling.

He was laughing.

“As if I would say something like that, idiot!” the pirate mocked getting up, childishly sticking his tongue out at him, and Akashi’s eyes widened in fury, his whole body shifting in a position that would have allowed him to jump at the man’s throat had the grate not been in between them.

Fury boiled in his veins, but that only seemed to fuel Makoto’s amusement more as the other kept on giggling with a waving gesture of the hand that seemed to be chasing away the hostility around Seijuro.

“I am a pirate and you’re my prisoner now. I don’t care about you in any possible mean and if, for argument’s sake, you were to die…” Makoto bent over, his face so close to the metal bar that his nose was almost inside the cell. His eyes shone crazily. “…then die.”

For the first time in his life, Akashi would have really lost his composure, if not for a hand that suddenly grabbed his wrist, the one of the hand he had on the floor to give him the strength necessary to reach the grate before Hanamiya pulled away. He turned to hiss at Midorima, but found out it wasn’t the doctor who had stopped him.

In his right state of mind, he would have realized that the hold was far too weak to belong to the strong doctor, but with rage turning his sight red he needed to meet a couple of topaz eyes to realize Ryouta had resurfaced from his slumber once more and was looking at him through half lifted lids. He was unbelievably pale, but looked lucid enough to realize Akashi was going to do something stupid. Or maybe he had just grabbed Seijuro by instinct when he had seen him, Akashi couldn’t know.

The only thing he knew, he would have to thank Ryouta, for he was sure Hanamiya was deliberately trying to provoke him and playing the other’s game was the last thing he wanted to do.

Makoto stared at Kise’s hand, but Midorima was fast in saying the other was still too much delirious to work and apparently the doctor’s word was enough for the pirate to shrug.

“Take the doctor and the dear fellow captain.” he ordered the men that had followed him as he turned and moved to leave the belowdecks, “We have a freighter to catch!”

***

The last thing Akashi wanted to do when Kise had just woken up was to leave him alone, but he couldn’t take any risk so he hushed him to wait just before one of the pirates stepped in to grab him.

While Midorima and almost all the other prisoners were left to walk on their own, only with a long chain tying their ankles to each other’s, Akashi and a couple of other people found themselves with wrists cuffed behind their backs and a pirate grabbing their arms securely while pushing them down another stair.

Akashi took notice of the men in his same situation, the Aomine Daiki Midorima had talked to him about and a giant man with long purple hair and two guards instead of one. Aomine had his beard undone and his eyes glared forward almost all the time, only taking a break to glare at his guard when the other pushed him. He cursed a lot, almost against everything, and looked more than ready to take any chance at rebellion. The other man looked down at his feet, but was grumbling continuously and sometimes it was him who pulled his guards. He didn’t look like a troublemaker, but also not as someone who’d quietly bow his head and obey. Akashi guessed they could have been used.

Midorima was a bit of a jolly card. He would probably sell his soul to escape the place, but it looked like his medical character wouldn’t allow him to take part to any plan that had high chances of comrades falling. He had probably already had to patch them up too many times to accept to risk their lives once more.

They reached the benches and the oars and Akashi instinctively stopped, refusing, but the guard beside him pushed on the wound on his shoulder and he stepped forward with a pained hiss. Midorima’s protest came immediately, but just as fast came a punch to his face and Seijuro wondered just how much of a stupid that doctor was.

Akashi was brought forward, to the very first row, and within that awful situation he could at least be glad that the pirates probably didn’t expect for him to join his forces with Aomine, because they placed him right beside the blue-haired man.

He started to realize the reason behind their assumption when he noticed the ‘P’ carved by fire on the other’s forearm, the mark imposed on pirates when they got caught. So Aomine not only was a pirate, but also a fugitive one. The chances for the two of them to work together were really slim, indeed, for neither of them was naturally prone to trust the other.

Daiki proved the point by clicking his tongue at him, but Akashi chose to ignore it. He was dead set on escaping before the pirates killed him or Kise and if he had to join forces with the lowest of the lowest to do it, then so be it. He wouldn’t back out.

The front row actually meant the last, since they were seated as to give their back to the direction the boat was moving toward, so Akashi found himself staring at the show of men and men moving in chains, their clothes dirty and ripped, their backs covered in the red marks of leashes.

The rustling as everybody was getting seated and the long chain was secured to the floor by locks and hooks in the wood grew slowly quieter and soon enough the surveillants got to them. Akashi observed how Daiki’s wrists were released only to be bound again with the same chain, in front of him this time and after wrapping the metal around the oar once, to make sure he couldn’t more from his spot on the bench. His ankles had been chained together too and Seijuro had to strive not to fight when a pirate knelt to tie his too.

When it was his turn, he tried to oppose some resistance when his wrists were free for a second, but the two hands restraining him quickly became four and he ended up in the same situation as Aomine. The giant man followed them quickly, on the other side of their row.

There were in total six pirates, but two moved upstairs to tell their captain everything was ready. Of the remaining four, two grabbed their whips from a little cabinet and moved along the rows — one at the last, one at the first — and one moved to a big drum that would have given the oarsman the rhythm to coordinate with each others, but the last one stood on the stairs to be ready to call reinforcements if any of the prisoners tried something.

Akashi clenched his fists, finding the pirates more organized than he had thought, but stood still. He had already known he couldn’t start a revolution on the very first day, but he had to get a good grip on how things worked as soon as possible to elaborate a plan.

So, when the drum played and the other men started paddling, he didn’t move. He didn’t even grabbed the oar but let his hands dangle from that, holden by chains only.

Aomine glared at him, but Akashi kept on staring at the man on the stairs, pretending to be just holding his ground. He needed to make sure of how far he could push his luck before the man ran upstairs to ask for help.

“What’s happening, Sir Captain?” came a voice behind him and Akashi made sure to remember it was the pirate with long uncombed purple-ash hair covering his eyes, all busy chewing on some dried meat, “Don’t know how to row?”

Seijuro turned his head to a side just enough to catch a glimpse of the man, then he spat on the ground right before his feet. It was all part of his plan, but he couldn’t deny the gesture gave him a little satisfaction.

The feeling lasted only briefly before the whip lashed his back, mercilessly falling on his hurt shoulder first. He instinctively leaned forward, his body trying to escape the blow, and his arms grabbed the oar for support as his head spun for the boiling pain of the wound. He hissed, but bit his tongue and refused to bow yet.

The man on the stairs, with red hair that made him noticeable even through the curtain of pain, was now frowning at the commotion in the last rows.

A second lash came and it had surely been aimed at his shoulder on purpose because it hit his wound dead on, ripping a strangled growl out of his throat.

The guard on the stairs was sighing, but didn’t look worried enough to go upstairs still.

Akashi couldn’t stifle the pained cry at the third lash that took his unhealed wound and he heard the man chuckling behind him.

“Remembered how to row, Sir Captain?” he asked.

Seijuro would have given his whole family's health to crush all the pirates on that damn ship right now. His growl was feral as he glared at the three enemies, the other one with the whip and the one at the drum and, mostly, the one on the stairs. He heard the sound of cut air behind him this time and so he bit his lip to keep silent at the next hit.

The smacking sound of whip against flesh came, along with a muffled cry of pain, but Akashi blinked because he sure as Hell hadn’t been hit.

He turned, ignoring his body’s aching, and widened his eyes when he saw the pirate’s whip wrapped around Kuroko’s neck.

When did the brat get in?! Had he sneaked with the prisoners? What for?

If the kid’s sudden presence surprised him, even more did so the pirates’ reactions.

“Fuck!” the one behind Akashi snarled as he ran to free the kid from the whip, “Fuck, fuck, not the throat!”

“Dammit, Hara!” exclaimed the other one with the whip, one with dead empy eyes and brown hair, “How could you fuck up this bad?!”

“Fuck you, Furuhashi, I didn’t see him!” Hara had just finished disentangling the kid from the leather and grabbed him roughly by the arms, “What the fuck were you doing behind me, uh?! It’s all your fault, you get it?! I won’t get Hanamiya’s fury for you!”

Kuroko didn’t answer, looking at him with his face slightly paler than before but still completely unreadable, and even if he had wanted to do it he wasn’t given the time.

“What happened here?”

Akashi turned sharply, eyes widened when he noticed that at a certain point — probably when he was too caught up with Hara’s strange behavior, damn — the red-haired pirate had ran up to call none other than the captain himself, who was now marching with an annoyed expression toward them.

Hara started with an endless string of excuses, words that made the guy with the mole in the middle of his front — Hanamiya’s second in command probably — lash out at him, grabbing the collar of his shirt.

Hanamiya ignored them to grab Kuroko’s chin in between two fingers and make him raise his head a bit. His expression was clearly displeased and Akashi widened his eyes when he saw him running a fingertip along the mark of the whip that was wrapped around the kid’s neck like a red snake promising to turn purple.

“Hara, Seto, shut up.” Hanamiya ordered and the two men obeyed, but the captain never stopped looking at his ship’s boy, “What were you doing down here, Tecchan? You know it’s not your place.”

Kuroko stood motionless and silent at the sentence, and when Hanamiya slapped him even Akashi flinched for the harshness of the blow. The kid was so frail he fell on the floor almost a step from the captain.

“Furuhashi, bring him upstairs. Seto, take the doctor to check on him. The others, bring the prisoners back in their cells.” Makoto ordered in a sigh, “Hara, you go order the crew we’ve changed target and we’re heading to Nihon Port. _And try not to mess up again._ ”

Hara almost vanished, clearly trying to escape his captain’s wrath, and Hanamiya just turned his back and left, not before sticking his tongue out at Akashi once more. Not that the other was in the mood to care about that.

As Furuhashi brought Kuroko away not even that gently and the other pirates started preparing the prisoners to move once more, he wondered just what had happened.

It couldn’t be that Hanamiya had given up on a boarding just because a ship’s boy had gotten hurt, right?! Unless there was something deeper between them… But still, giving up a boarding?!

“Come on, Sir Captain, we don’t have all this time.”

Akashi was so dumbfounded he let himself being pulled up on his feet and pushed to the stairs once more. He only had the lucidity to turn and check on the other two special prisoners and he found something interesting.

The both of them looked furious.

***

Akashi was pushed into his cell and the first thing he did was kneeling down and check on Kise. Not that he could do much else, since he doubted that anybody but Midorima would have given him the informations he wanted.

He only needed to murmur his name softly for Kise to strive to open his eyes again. He managed just a bit, but it was a good sign and Akashi caressed his forehead in reassurance.

“How are you feeling?” he whispered, wondering if it was the case to give the other some wine to drink to replenish his strength a bit.

Kise only muttered something incoherent in response, but he managed to say “Akashicchi” which meant both that he could recognize what he was seeing and that he was still enough present to himself to use that awful nickname. Seijuro didn’t feel like scolding him though.

“You need to drink, Ryouta.” he said, not leaving room for negotiations, as always, even if he added a more soft, “Can you?”

Kise frowned and his hand, trembling slightly, lifted to point to Akashi’s shoulder. “W-What…?”

Akashi didn’t have to look to know it was probably bleeding again, he could feel it, _scorchingly_ well indeed, and yet he faked not to see.

“I asked you a question, Ryouta.” he reminded, trying to sound threatening, and Kise let himself being distracted, nodding.

Akashi reached for the bowl and letting his friend drink was difficult with an arm so out of use, but in the end they managed. Kise’s face looked more relaxed by then and Seijuro let him go back to sleep so that he could look around and try to spy on the other cells.

Aomine looked restless, his curses now a low growling between clenched teeth, and the giant was…pouting? Akashi couldn’t describe it any other way. The two of them were both clearly displeased for something and Akashi assumed, by exclusion, that it must have been Kuroko even for the two of them.

But how could that kid hold so much power over everybody in the crew? It didn’t make sense! But if it was true, if Kuroko was important enough for Hanamiya to give up on a boarding…

Everybody was whispering so there was no way for Akashi to get Aomine or the other man to listen to him, not to mention he would rather to keep their first conversation confidential. It honestly irritated him quite a bit, but he told himself there was time. They were heading to a port now, it meant the oarsmen work probably wouldn’t have been required unless a strong opposing wind rose. That was at least a good thing.

Midorima came back from upstairs shortly later and Hara pushed him in the cell with Akashi and Kise before mumbling between himself and leaving.

Seijuro’s gaze alone was enough to make the doctor sigh and sit as he prepared his answer.

“I don’t know what’s the relationship between those two.” he said immediately, “What everybody knows is that if anything happens to Kuroko, Hanamiya goes crazy. He threw one of his crew to the fish for grabbing him by the neck.”

Akashi frowned. “Lovers?”

Midorima shrugged, not knowing, and went to check Kise while Akashi cursed lowly.

It seemed that to get some answers he really had to talk to Aomine and the only way he had to do so was the oars.

Begrudgingly, he found himself hoping for a strong opposing wind.

***

The wind came.

This time, Akashi forced himself to be as obedient as he could when they were brought to the oars. Hara teased him, saying that a few lashes were apparently what he needed, but he forced himself not to react to the provocation. He had to physically bite his tongue to the point of bleeding when the pirates chained him to his place and his hands held onto the oar like it was one of those bastard’s neck.

At first it felt like the oar won’t move no matter what. Akashi’s shoulder was still hurting and the strength he could use was limited notably, but Aomine managed to move the thing one first time and from then on it was slightly easier. Slightly.

When Hara turned his eyes on the giant with purple hair, who was complaining non-stop as if he didn’t even care about the consequences, Akashi decided to take the risk.

“Midorima told me you’re interested in Tetsu.”

Akashi blinked, surprised for being preceded, and spied Aomine from the corner of his eye, but the other was looking forward, even if with a frown.

“Midorima?” Seijuro managed to ask in a whisper.

Daiki clicked his tongue. “The doctor is the only one who’s allowed to move from cell to cell and to talk to the other prisoners.”

“He told me he didn’t know much about Kuroko.”

“Tetsu doesn’t like for people to know much about him. And I don’t like people asking questions about him either.”

Akashi almost groaned. It felt like they weren’t getting anywhere and he had really hoped they could work something out when they were still at the port, when it would have been easier to find a way to simply leave the ship, without forcing all the exhausted prisoners — most of whom he wasn’t even sure were soldiers or any kind of warriors — to fight against the pirates. Not to mention, the other man’s complaining seemed to be dying down at the threat of starvation, cutting their time to talk freely.

“Hanamiya and Kuroko…” he started, but Aomine cut him off.

“'Hanamiya and Kuroko'  _my ass_.” he hissed, “Hanamiya is keeping him here against his will and he plays nice and good because this way he can slip something to Midorima. End of the story.”

“So he would agree to help?” Akashi asked, storing all the informations in the back of his mind for further analysis.

Aomine spied on him from the side.

“Help with what?”

“Escape.”

In his surprise, Aomine didn’t bother hiding the gesture and turned completely toward Akashi, almost messing the rhythm of their rowing. Hara noticed and snapped the whip right above their heads, in a clear threat. They both glared at him, but resumed their work.

Akashi was extremely dissatisfied, and his crew used to know that it wasn’t a good thing. Hara kept his eyes on them the whole time, Aomine also got a couple of lashes and he got one, and by the time they reached the port, some hours later, the two prisoners hadn’t get any chance to talk at all.

Akashi let himself be dragged back upstairs while planning all kinds of revenge on Hara, but when he was pushed into his cell he got at least a good news.

Kise was sitting with his back against the wood wall of the ship, in the back of the space, and he was holding himself up by one of the bars that divided theirs from the near cell. He looked pale and was sweating a lot, but his eyes were open and focused and analyzed Akashi fully as soon as he entered his line of sight.

“Akashicchi…” he called, in a dried whisper, and Seijuro was fast grabbing the bowl and sitting beside him, “W-what…?”

“Stop. Drink. We’ll talk later.”

Akashi was gentle as he held the bowl to his friend’s lips, the other hand behind his neck to prevent Kise’s head to dangle forward or to a side, and he waited for the other to be done before drinking himself.

_A good leader is the first to get up and the last to lay down, the last to eat and to get medical help, but the first to work and to come to aid. A good leader values his men above himself._ His father had laughed of all those words, but just because they had come out of his mother’s lips Akashi had followed them religiously. He couldn’t save any of his men, but Kise was alive and he would have made sure he kept on living.

“Akashicchi, what happened?” Kise mumbled, his breath a bit labored.

Seijuro sighed.

“The pirates took our ship.” he whispered, “They killed the governor and all the others. We’re the only ones who survived.”

He watched the pain widening his friend’s eyes and stood silent as Kise bit his lower lip to hide its tremor. He wasn’t that close to anybody but Ryouta himself, but he knew that the other had been friends with almost everybody on the ship. He let him elaborate his loss and simply sat in front of him, his side pushing against the grate.

He was at a dead point. They would have been in the port in less than a day now and he wouldn’t get any chance to talk to Aomine since when they’ll be sailing again. The chance to escape without taking the ship had burned down to ashes now.

“I need to check on Sakurai, nanodayo.”

Akashi moved his head to look at Midorima, three cells down the deck to visit another prisoner, and noticed that Aomine was right because Furuhashi, the one who’d stood down to check on the doctor’s work, let him out of the cell and was going to open another one, on the other side of the little corridor between them.

What surprised him, was that Midorima grunted.

“There’s too little room for me to work, nanodayo.” the doctor complained without getting in, but Furuhashi simply blinked on his dead eyes.

“You’ll have to make it with that.” he answered.

Midorima sighed again. “Can’t you at least move one of the prisoners in that cell for a while, nanodayo?”

Akashi turned, not to get caught staring by Furuhashi, because, one, the cell Midorima was pointing at was the one beside his and, two, among the prisoners that could have been moved was…

“Move Aomine there. He’s too big, nanodayo. I can work without him.”

_Do it!_ , Akashi wasn’t really sure what in him bought Midorima’s trust but if the doctor managed with his stunt they had still a chance. He looked at Kise, who was frowning while staring at his face, but didn’t ask anything.

He didn’t hear any answer, but someone huffed and steps could be heard approaching them. When Akashi looked sideway through the grate, he saw Aomine grumpily letting himself fall on the floor, right against the wooden wall of the ship, like Kise. Only a step away from the grate dividing him from Akashi.

Good.

Furuhashi went back to Midorima and stared at him as he worked on that Sakurai and Aomine silently shifted closer to the grate.

“Pretty princess is awake now?” he grunted in a whisper and Kise glared at him, but kept silent, not knowing what was happening. Aomine grinned to him before looking at Akashi with an arched brow. “I don’t know if you’re so smart you can really take us out of here or if you’re so stupid you think there’s a way.” With a pinky he started digging in his ear and Akashi managed to keep a serious expression only because Kise’s showed enough disgust for the both of them. “But I guess it’s always better than being their mule.”

Akashi nodded, almost with himself, before turning briefly to check on Furuhashi. Midorima was being considerably less than gentle with that Sakurai guy, who in return kept on moaning or yelling and then apologizing ceaselessly. It was a good distraction, definitely.

“What do you know about the ship and the crew?” 

***

Aomine was detailed, explaining every part of the ship and the characteristics of every member of the crew. A bit too much detailed, far more than what Akashi was expecting, which led to a little bit of wariness. Kise didn’t seem amused at the other’s colorful expressions, but that was the least of their problems. Akashi decided to test the waters before deciding to give Aomine up as a potential spy.

“What about Kuroko?” he asked. The other seemed to be a delicate topic for Aomine, but it was also the main point of whatever plan Akashi could come up with.

Aomine grunted at that, but sighed.

“Tetsu was hurt and bleeding on a wooden board when we found him.”

Akashi’s hand was fast in grabbing Aomine’s collar through the grates, silent and fast.

“ _We_?!” he asked, hissing, but Aomine looked unfazed. If anything he frowned.

“Yeah, I was one of the crew before Tetsu came along, didn’t you know?” he asked, but then he shrugged, “Well, I guess in a few days you didn’t get to hear Hara and the others hinting at that, but…yeah, I was one of them when Hanamiya’s older brother was the captain. Shit was different back then, but the man got hanged and Makoto took his place.”

Akashi frowned, but let go of Aomine just in time before Furuhashi turned to check on them. Daiki stuck his tongue out at his previous comrade and the man just rolled his eyes before looking back at Midorima. Sakurai let out a very high pitched scream in that moment.

“How did you end up here?” Kise asked lowly, and Akashi was glad to see he was regaining lucidity.

Aomine just shrugged. “Tetsu.”

Akashi had understood by now that ‘Tetsu’ meant Kuroko, but it didn’t explain anything at all. Aomine sighed.

“When we found Tetsu, he was barely still alive. His ship had probably sank and he had a fucking harpoon in his right shoulder. He still has the scar.” Daiki shook his head. “However, he was thin and frail, but Hanamiya said we were to keep him, that he looked like someone who could have been used to ask a ransom. He had this strange golden pendant and we all agreed that he was probably the scion of some well off family. 

“Back then, Hanamiya was captain only since a month, he had yet to start this whole shit about oarsmen. His brother was all traps and little killings. It was a game to work under him, but Makoto is the complete opposite. He’s all for gratuitous violence.” Aomine scratched his nape. “So we got the kid up and Hanamiya threw him in his rooms, saying he needed to first get to know which family he was from. We were all good with that and it was normal, if not for the fact that Makoto came out the following day saying we were keeping the kid. We asked him why and his answer was ‘ _He sings well_ ’.”

Akashi arched a brow, unbelievingly, but Aomine nodded.

“That’s crazy, right?!” he said, “That was so stupid we all thought he was joking but he wasn’t. We kept the kid. He was limping back then. Broken leg. Makoto didn’t care about him at all during day, but at night he got him every time to sing for him. I thought, well, everybody has his tastes, I guess, but hell… The bastard wouldn’t care if the others made the kid’s life hell as long as they didn’t mess with his voice. All was fair. Seto did like to torment him.

“I didn’t like that. There’s no point in taking it out on someone who’s too weak to defend himself, so I just stepped in to stop them once or twice. I guess the kid grew attached.” Akashi wondered if Aomine realized how much softer his voice grew when he talked about Kuroko. “I was the first one to get his name. Before, everybody just called him _brat_. But he wasn’t, he was…” Daiki smirked a bit, “…tough. For someone his size, at least. Also venomous like nobody else on the ship. That mouth could have brought him just as many troubles as it saved him from. 

“Well, I guess I came to like him and he came to like me. When his leg was healed, he said he was going to run from here and asked me to go with him. Makoto had started all this shit about prisoners and massacres and all, and I didn’t really like that, so I said okay.”

“You said okay.” Kise muttered, eyes wide. “Just like that.”

Akashi wasn’t surprised, Aomine had looked like someone really simple. He would just do what he wanted disregarding the consequences, indeed.

Daiki shot a cocky smile at Kise, as if he really believed that to be a compliment, but then he turned back to Akashi. Sakuragi’s screams were all loud enough to give them security that Furuhashi had other things to take care of.

“I don’t know who ratted us out, but that night Makoto knocked Tetsu out and got me. I ended up here and he got a broken arm.” Aomine’s eyes grew dark, “The bastard didn’t even bother imprisoning Tetsu too. He knew he wouldn’t have left without me, so he was playing safe. That idiot still refuses to go, even now.”

Akashi brushed his chin pensively, ignoring the sceptic looks from Kise.

“Hanamiya really is obsessed with Kuroko’s voice, right?” he asked, but he had already known his answer since three days before.

Aomine grunted something affirmative, but they didn’t get to talk more. Midorima had finished and Furuhashi promptly sent Daiki back in his cell, away from Akashi.

But Seijuro had already gotten a good share of what he needed to know.

***

It was late night when the last bit of his plan came to him. They were supposed to reach the port at dawn at worst, so the whole crew was on the deck, getting ready for the docking. The prisoners were back in their cells, but Aomine, the giant and Akashi had seen their handcuffs being placed once more on their wrists, tying them up behind their backs and around one of the bars of their cells.

Kise had crawled stubbornly toward him and Akashi had scolded him the all time, but the other had only listened to maybe a couple of words before falling on him and asleep once more, panting and sweaty.

Seijuro, crossed legs, had sighed, but let him keep his head on one of his thighs. Kise’s infection was receding luckily, but he was still weak and unsteady. Any push could have put him back to step one or in a even worse situation, so they had to be careful.

In the darkness, Akashi had tried to plan something, then to sleep a bit. He missed some details still and it would have brought him no good to be dead tired the following day. He had reclined his head backward, laying it against the bars and ignoring how uncomfortable the position was, and he was now just drifting to sleep.

_Crack._

It was such a thin sound in the middle of the chaos of steps and voices above his head and of heavy breaths from the other cells, that it was probably the reason it stood out so much to Akashi’s senses.

There was no repetition of it, but Seijuro was sure that it came from the steps to the manhole for the deck, so he stiffened a bit, getting ready to react to the newcomer.

“Good evening.”

Akashi didn’t flinch, indeed he stood frozen, when a whisper suddenly slipped in his ear from behind his nape, and thus it took him a moment to realize just what he had been told.

_Good evening?!_

“I am sorry to disturb your sleep, Akashi-san,” the voice kept on, always barely above the volume of the morning wind caressing sand, but this time it came accompanied by a low rustle and a simple ‘thud’ of a knee laying on the wood. Akashi moved his head to his left a bit, enough to meet the face of the stranger who was moving to a side to appear in his field of vision, and he blinked, partially surprised and partially not when welcomed by a huge pair of dark azure eyes. Kuroko looked at him impassively, “but I think we have something to talk about.”


	2. Part II

**Through Gold and Iron Chains**

**Part II**

 

 

The darkness was just as thick as the stench of pressed men, sweat and dirt, but still when Akashi turned his head Kuroko’s eyes where shimmering.

The ship was wobbling slightly and the noise of steps above their heads was endless and loud, frenetic. They had little time, none to waste, and yet they stood for a second, silently looking at each other’s blurred figure.

Akashi’s was far worse off. His shirt was dirty in the blood he had lost and shed during the boarding of his ship and his whipping and it was torn on his left shoulder so it dangled forward loosely, the lace on his chest ripped baring a triangle of his flesh to the cold air; his trousers were better but stained too, and his boots were starting to hurt, yet he couldn’t take them off not even at night with the metal cuffs locking his wrists behind his back and to the bars. All his muscles ached for the uncomfortable position — Kise’s head on his thigh helped little for that — and for the heavy work at the oars, and the sweat had glued his hair to his forehead.

Kuroko would have been pristine if not for the bandage around his neck, a quiet reminder of the accident with Hara that had spared Akashi’s back, and for the awful wildness of his hair. Even in the darkness, they came across as completely uncombed. He was wearing the same clothes as the day before, but they were still clean and didn’t smell like latrines as Akashi’s probably did.

Tetsuya shoot a glance at Kise, not so peacefully resting with Seijuro’s leg as his pillow, and Akashi sighed but nodded to mean he was innocuous. Kuroko’s eyes moved immediately back on him.

“I know you’re planning an escape and intend to use me against Hanamiya.” His voice was subtle and gentle in the darkness, soothing almost, and in some strange way refreshing. Akashi’s throat ached, dried. “I agree.”

The captain blinked for a second, just enough for the last words to sink in and to make sure there wasn’t anything coming up after them.

“You agree.” Akashi repeated and his mind replayed in his mind Kise and Aomine bantering almost in the same way. He was starting to realize why the boy had grown so attached to the pirate: they were similarly stupid, probably.

“But I have a condition.”

_Or maybe not_. Maybe Kuroko was a bit smarter than his friend, and Akashi arched a brow, his neck hurting for the effort to keep his head turned to a side, to prompt him to go on.

Tetsuya seemed to hesitate for a minute and Akashi’s eyes, even in the dark, spotted the way his grip on the bars tightened for a second. When he talked, in the end, he did it so softly Akashi barely managed to hear him.

“You will bring Aomine-kun, Midorima-kun and Murasakibara-kun out of here.” he gulped and again his knuckles whitened around the metal bar, “I don’t care about the others, but you _will_ save the three of them.”

_Is that so?_ , Akashi was pretty sure Murasakibara was the giant and he already knew the kid had a special relationship with both Aomine and Midorima, so he supposed it made sense for him to prioritize them, yet he realized that up until then he had naïvely thought that the other was some kind of holy martyr of the ship.

_Don’t be a fool._ , he scolded himself, looking at the way the kid’s hands were trembling _._ Kuroko was sure suffering for his choice to allow Akashi to choose to leave whoever else he wanted behind, but in a way that was what made him honorable. Just like Seijuro, he was ready to sacrifice everything, even a whole lot of lives, for his companions. _Soft hearts have never saved anyone, after all._

“My condition is Kise.” he whispered then, lowly.

Kuroko’s eyes closed for a moment and Akashi could have sworn pain molded his features for a moment in a completely different person, someone far older and sadder. It lasted for a second barely and then the other was nodding lowly.

“Then we have an agreement.” he whispered. There was a yell from above their heads, someone calling Makoto in a loud voice, and Kuroko’s head snapped up to the ceiling but the activity up deck went on as if nothing and slowly both the prisoners relaxed a bit. “We can’t escape while we’re at the port. Hanamiya has many people on his side here, we wouldn’t make it far. We need to be in high sea.”

“It only appears to me as far more difficult to escape from a ship in the middle of the ocean.” Akashi hissed, a brow arched, “When it was about only you and Aomine, you could have make it with a lifeboat and supplies, but we’re talking about six people here.”

Kuroko surprised him with the umpteenth apathetic expression and shocking revelation.

“I know of someone who could help us.” he whispered, “They have a ship that could rival the Navy’s ones in every aspect.”

Well, that seemed interesting. Unbelievable and unrealistic, but interesting.

“And why haven’t you asked for their help up until now?” _Be suspicious, son. Never trust anybody._

“One of the seagulls following our ship is trained to bring messages from me to an old friend of mine.” Kuroko whispered, “He knows he has to bring him the golden medallion I had with me when I was caught; I just have to put a message in it beforehand. The problem is, he won’t move with anything but that jewel and Hanamiya hid it in a Japanese puzzle box.” His hands clenched slightly around the metal bars, “I can’t open it, no matter how many times I try, but Midorima-kun said you’re very smart and could probably do it.”

_Midorima?_ Akashi frowned. Just how much Midorima knew?, he sure couldn’t have decided he was ‘smart’ in a couple of days and his behavior was quite…weird. He had been indeed a bit too fast in sharing his knowledge with a stranger.

“Midorima-kun was the doctor on a ship of the Imperial Navy of Teiko.” Kuroko whispered, almost as if reading his mind, “He had quite a rank, I think. He said he had heard of you before.”

Akashi’s eyes tried to fly to the doctor, but deeper in the ship it was too dark to see. He wondered how many other companions were there out of his knowledge, but he pushed the thought away. Kise, he himself, Kuroko, Aomine, Midorima and Murasakibara; those were the only persons he had to worry about. He couldn’t let himself think about anybody else, or it would have backfired against him when the moment came.

He gulped, ignoring the uneasy feeling in his throat, and turned to look back at the figure of Kuroko in the shadows.

He was suspicious, extremely so. The trained inconspicuous seagull and the golden medallion was an intricate way to send messages that were impossible to be intercepted or falsified, the kind of tricks that only high level spies could pull off. Trust him was an option Akashi would have never considered in a normal situation, or at least not before discovering everything about this mysterious man. But, to be honest, the situation was all but normal.

“Describe me Hanamiya’s puzzle box.” he ordered lowly.

And as Kuroko whispered lowly, the light of dawn slowly cracked in by the manhole and at the voices of the crew were mixed the loud ones of Nihon Port.

 

***

 

The crew was allowed to get in town, mainly to satisfy themselves, but the prisoners were kept on the ship the whole time. Since they weren’t brought to the oars, Kuroko wasn’t allowed to clean the cells and by midday of the second day the stench was almost unbearable and Akashi found himself lying against the grate closer to the manhole, desperately trying to breath some clean air. The muscles of his arms and shoulders were trembling helplessly, strained by the cuffs locking his wrists and his throat burned as he kept on drinking just a little, leaving most of the water to his only cellmate.

Kise was getting worse again. The situation was hard on his weakened body and Akashi had forced him to lay close to the manhole too but it only helped that much.

Besides Kuroko when he brought them their share of food, only Seto came around, once per day around midday. When the heat was scorching, he made a round through the cells to check that nobody had died and Akashi, oh, he dreamt every time of the most painful ways to kill him, especially every time he passed by and looked at Kise. He wanted to gouge those eyes and their lustful look out, but instead he could only shift to cover the other and glare at their jailer, who in turn sneered before leaving for good.

 

***

 

The third night, Akashi was kept awake by the dreadful sound of someone coughing in the deepest cells and the terrifying question screaming in his mind.

_Will it spread?_

Akashi didn’t sleep at all and his eyes never left Ryouta’s face, his body tense in fear of seeing him coughing too.

 

***

 

The next noon, Seto came but suddenly went back on the deck. He returned shortly after with Hara and Furuhashi and Akashi laid his hand on Kise’s eyes, even if he was sleeping, while his couldn’t left the frame of the corpse the pirates were taking away.

The silence was so deafening, they all heard the splash of water when something big hit its surface and disappeared in its depths.

 

***

 

Kuroko came back that afternoon, right after Seto had finished his round, and Akashi wondered if he could really go on with the plan. He was pale and tense and his apathetic expression couldn’t really hide his uneasiness.

“You shouldn’t be here, now.” he whispered lowly, “If our goal is so… _limited_ , you shouldn’t…”

“It’s a twenty-nine moves box.” Kuroko’s whisper was so low it seemed like his voice was trembling. Akashi’s temple was laying against the bar and Tetsuya’s lips were really close to his ear, yet he still barely heard the other.

_Twenty-nine moves. It probably doesn’t take more than a minute to open it by knowing the steps, but if I have to go on by trials and errors it could take an awful lot of times._ Akashi gritted his teeth.

Japanese Puzzle Boxes were wooden boxes whose lock could only be opened by performing a string of movements on the different parts of the box itself. One single wrong move blocked the whole mechanism and the only other way to open it was by breaking the whole thing, risking its content. There were boxes whit a simple ten or fourteen combination but also extremely complex ones with more than three-hundreds steps. The fact that Hanamiya’s was under the thirty moves was a good thing itself. And if for some boxes it was quite easy to see which parts were to be moved and which not, others looked like simple cube of wood and needed a lot of attention to spot their gears.

“You’re sure it’s twenty-nine?” he whispered. Kuroko couldn’t tell him much about the box last time because apparently Hanamiya locked himself in his study to open it when he needed any of the jewels he had there. The only thing Tetsuya knew was that the box was around twenty inches per ten and that it didn’t have any particular decoration but the yellow and dark brown geometrical pattern that covered all its faces. Meaning, it was one hell of a difficult one, but the number of steps was lower than what Akashi had imagined.

“I asked Hanamiya to see my medallion and I spied through the door lock. I couldn’t tell the movements, but I’m sure the box clicked twenty-nine times, I counted carefully.”

“He wasn’t suspicious?”

It was a second, just one, but Akashi caught the dark glimpse in Tetsuya’s eyes.

“I always ask him to let me see it, when one of the prisoners dies.”

Seijuro didn’t know what to answer and Kuroko’s irises fall to the floor, silence enveloping them.

It was dangerous and Tetsuya should have left as soon as he could, but for once Akashi didn’t press it. He was a prisoner in a cell, he had cold iron preventing his escape, but the chains that were binding Kuroko to that damn ship were made of pure blood, the one of those he had seen dying and the one of those he was not willing to leave behind even if it cost him his life. It was a servitude that was harder to bear.

“We’re sailing two days from now.” Kuroko whispered, “Hanamiya wants to intercept a ship of the Imperial Navy.”

Akashi cringed. “He’s gotten cocky after taking mine down.”

Kuroko’s hand slipped through the bars and laid on Akashi’s shoulder, dangerously closed to the crook of his neck and the side of his face that wasn’t pressed against the grate, and the gesture would have been more reassuring had he not kept on talking.

“This one does not simply transport the gold for the troops on the Meiko border.” His gulp was low, but Akashi heard him and lifted his eyes to look at his face, forcing his eyelids to stay up despite the hotness and heavy air, “It’s bringing supplies to the Rakuzan Port, for the new flagship that’s being built there.”

Even Seijuro’s dazed brain could get the meaning behind those words.

“Weapons.” he hissed, instinctively shifting against his restrains.

Kuroko’s free hand slipped to his bounded wrists and slipped his fingers in between the flesh and the metal to keep him from hurting himself, but the consistence of the skin made him move his gaze. It was apparently too late, because purple circles had already blossomed and there were numerous cuts, either still red and open or closed and stained in a yellowish shade by the inevitable infection.

Absentmindedly, he caressed the wounds with the tip of his fingers, trying to soothe the pain with the coldness of his own skin, and he was relieved to see Akashi’s face and shoulders relaxing a bit.

_You can’t afford to relax._

He gulped.

“They’re bringing the cannons that would be the new flagship’s.” he kept on, trying not to tremble again, “Hanamiya says that’s because they’ve been made appositely for that ship and that are probably the best cannons in all the Oceans.”

“They are.” Akashi grumpily admitted. He knew well, obviously, because he had been to one to find the artisans to build them. Because he had been the one who was supposed to be the captain of the new flagship. “Their range is longer, but taking nothing away from their power. And they’re lighter, too.”

“Light enough to allow the ship moving them to have its own other cannons to defend itself?” Kuroko asked, but it was a rhetorical question. No ship could have brought all that weight and it was already moving cannons for another one that was far bigger. They sure weren’t moving bullets too.

“They were supposed to be moved by earth.” Akashi hissed. He had given precise dispositions about that right to avoid the situation they were in, but he could perfectly see who had done that foolish change in his plans. _Haizaki always thinks he can do better than me, uh?_ “That ship is completely undefended.”

“Hanamiya thought so.” Kuroko admitted, nodding, “The merchant ship was supposed to sail and reach its destination in complete secrecy, so it sailed at night, but…”

“…there’s only that much you can do to hide something as big as a damn boat.” Akashi concluded. “Someone sold the information about the load, the building of the new flagship had never been a secret and someone as smart as Hanamiya made two plus two.” He eyed Kuroko again, tiredly. “What about the route?”

“Hanamiya and Seto had been locked in the captain’s study for the past three days.” Kuroko looked tired too. “I don’t know how they did it, but they seemed to have excluded all the other routes ‘till when they were left with only one.”

“It’s not that admirable.” Akashi scoffed, and Kuroko would have maybe smiled of his childish stubbornness had it been in other circumstances, “With all that weight and the ceremony for the launching of the flagship in two weeks there’s only a little handful of routes they could take to make it in time. And since they are completely helpless, they must have chosen the one that potentially held the least dangers.” Seijuro bit his lower lip for a second, frowning, but then he cursed. “They’ll coast Shuutoku’s beaches and Hanamiya will wait for them at the Strait of Touou, won’t him? It’s filled with shallows around there. If he pushes the ship within the Strait, it will get stuck for sure.”

Kuroko looked taken aback for a second, but ended up nodding and Akashi cursed again.

“Does Hanamiya plan on selling the cannons or…?”

This time, Tetsuya shook his head. “He wants to install them on this ship.”

_From bad to worse._

“If he manages to, the ship you can provide us with will end up on the bottom of the ocean even before they can lay a single hit.” Akashi grumbled and when his fists clenched they squeezed Kuroko’s fingers against the cuff, ripping a low yelp from him.

He immediately relaxed his muscles, almost guilty, but Tetsuya didn’t take his hands away. Slowly, he began caressing the offended skin again, careful, with barely his fingertips. It was a soothing massage that let Akashi lay his head backward against the bars, eyes closed as he strived to think.

“When are they going to attack?”

Kuroko shot a glance at the manhole, but turned back immediately after. “A week from now. Then they will dock at Meiko Port two days later, install the new cannons and sell the old ones."

“Nine days.” Akashi counted, resisting the urge to clench his fists again. It was really soon. He turned his head to try to look at Tetsuya, “Admitting we manage to send the message to your friend, how long will it take for them to receive it and come to our rescue?”

Kuroko bit his lower lip, pensively, but when he answered he was sure of himself. “Five days, possibly six.”

_Dammit._

Akashi strained his neck to its maximum and forced his wounded shoulder to stretch the most it could to allow him to find Kuroko’s eyes for real, not just catching them from the corner of his. His cuffs clanged lowly, almost warningly.

“I need to get and open that box within three days.” he stated, and the way the other stared back let him know he had already thought about it.

“As long as we’re at the port, there are less people on the deck.” he said. His fingers left Akashi’s wrists, the phantom of their touch still lingering against the raw skin, and Seijuro found Tetsuya moving more to a side, to enter his sight better, hands now wrapped around the bars, “Hanamiya leaves his study at ten in the morning to go to the brothel and then to the tavern. He comes back around three and makes sure to be sober again before evening. He wants to be lucid when night falls. _But,_ ” Akashi groaned at the word and Kuroko’s eyes looked extremely guilty as he delivered the last bit of information with apathetic voice and face, “two days from now, before leaving the port, he’ll pay the whole sum his men had spent during the time on the port at once. With the jewels he had stolen and that now he keeps…”

“…in that fucking box, dammit.” Akashi’s curse was so loud and acid, Kise stirred in his sleep and opened his eyes.

It took the blond a second to realize where they were and what the situation was, but when he managed he strived to move.

“Ryouta.” Seijuro reprimanded when the other tried to roll on himself to get on all four, “Stay down. We still have some days like these to go, you shouldn’t exhaust yourself uselessly.”

Kise shook his head, but it was a difficult gesture for him. His hand grabbed the bars of the grate Akashi was still cuffed to, and even if the grip looked weak and trembling he managed to pull himself on his knees, a shoulder slumping heavily against the iron. He seemed relieved at the little coldness against his temple and after some deep breath he finally focused his gaze on Akashi.

He didn’t seem to notice Kuroko at all.

“What…” his voice came out rasp and his throat was so dried talking brought tears to his eyes, but he simply gulped and stubbornly went on, “..are we going to… do,… Akashicchi?”

For a moment, Akashi considered his state. Kise was weak, his skin pale and dried contrasting with the dark heavy bags under his eyes in spite of all the time he spent in his deep helpless slumber; his head had seemed to grow better thanks to Midorima’s constant care and Kuroko’s wine, but the stagnant air and the heat and the stench were having it easy in draining all his remaining strength. _“Once we’ll be back in high sea, he will get better.”_ Midorima had said, but his eyes had a dark shade, a silent _“If he makes it”_ that had Akashi even more restless than before.

Two more days, Kuroko had said though. Kise could last that much, Seijuro was sure of that. He hadn’t known Ryouta for a very long time to be honest, he had been placed under his command four years before for a mission for none other than the Emperor Nijimura himself, but like the faithful puppy he had probably been in his previous life, the blond had refused to leave him alone from then on. Akashi still wasn’t sure when he had exactly started to care for him, but he knew for a fact that Kise was far stronger than what he looked like.

And if there was a way to ignite Ryouta’s spirit, it was by giving him a challenge.

“We’re escaping from this shithole.” Akashi said, not bothering sugaring his words and Kise widened his eyes, well aware that only in very dire situations Seijuro allowed himself to be that crude. “And I’ll need your help to do so.”

Kise’s topaz irises could be cheerful suns warming up even the coldest heart, but in that very moment they were only the gold of the impenetrable gates of his own stubbornness and Akashi felt satisfaction tugging the corner of his lips upward.

Yes, Kise could last those two days. The question now was, could he open the path to their freedom in that time?

“Tell me how to get my hands on that box.” Seijuro ordered Kuroko, turning his head again and ignoring Kise’s surprised yelp when the mysterious guy answered promptly.

 

***

 

Kuroko’s was, as predictable, a suicide plan. Good thing that Akashi wasn’t one to lose. 

Ever.

 

***

 

“Akashicchi, please…”

“Ryouta, _no._ Do not make me repeat it a third time.”

Kise bit his lower lip under the cold firmness of Akashi’s eyes, but he was still clearly hesitant. Seijuro could understand his uneasiness — and even share it, to some extent —, but there was absolutely no way that he would let the other exchange their roles in that plan.

Kise apparently settled for complaining, or deemed it safer than contradicting his friend again.

“I don’t like this.” he muttered, his eyes shifting to Akashi’s shoulder, still hidden under his dried-blood stained shirt, and to his wrists that had started to get cut by being constantly pushed and dragged against the raw metal of the cuffs and that had now dirtied his hands with subtle rivulets of blood, barely thicker than a thread.

Seijuro unconsciously gritted his teeth at the look of pure _pity_ in his friend’s eyes.

“Can you solve a Japanese Box of twenty nine moves, Ryouta?” he asked, voice cold but not aggressive. When Kise looked at him, it was clear as day he had not even the slightest idea of what they were talking about. “And that settles it.” Akashi states with a sigh, leaning with his back against the grate behind him trying to ease his stiff muscles at least a bit. “I don’t want to hear another complain from you.”

Unsurprisingly, Kise muttered something under his breath, but didn’t insist all the same.

Akashi spied on him from the corner of his eyes as the blond gaze moved to the manhole, staring at it with unconcealed longing. It was open and a square of pale blue sky could be seen from their cell, just enough to catch some seagulls flying free and pure white numbs meekly following the wind. Being the free spirit Kise indeed was, it came as no surprise that captivity was making him mad now that he was slowly regaining lucidity.

Midorima had been amazed at how much that airhead’s willpower could against his own body’s weakness, but Akashi wasn’t, he had always known how strong Kise could steel himself to be when he was given a reason or someone to fight for. He was still pale, he still got tired easily and he was pale and his hands trembled whenever he thought Akashi wasn’t looking and let himself go for a little; that night, he had still hugged himself to fight shivers and his fever had seemed to come back for a while, but he was stubbornly fighting it. Much to Seijuro’s pride — and Midorima’s embolus — he had managed to get back on his feet just that morning, hands wrapped tightly to the bars of the cell and breath heavy.

All those progresses came with a downside, one that had Akashi feeling even heavier the weight of all the seconds they were losing in wait.

Next time Hanamiya called for the oars, Kise was sure to be brought there too.

And Kise was stubborn, but Akashi couldn’t imagine his willpower to be strong enough to keep him alive from an eventual whipping. Hara was harsh and left cuts, but Seto ripped whole portions of skin from the flesh.

Seto whose steps made Akashi stiffen for a bit as Kise hissed like an animal, his topaz glare burning in fury against the man who sneered at him loudly enough for even Seijuro to hear.

“Calm down, princess. You don’t want to make me angry.”

Kise’s mouth was already open to answer and Akashi had to hit his leg with his own knee, unseen, to prevent him from putting their plan in danger. Not that Seijuro liked to let the pirate and his offenses go unpunished, but they had to be patient, at least for a bit more.

_Eight days._ , Akashi counted mentally, head hanging forward heavily, as he secretly watched through his now long bangs Seto moving down the corridor in between the cells to check on the prisoners. _Eight days and I’ll gut you._

Then he closed his eyes and stopped breathing.

 

***

 

“I hate that man! I just want to-… Akashicchi? Akashicchi?!”

Seto turned, frowning, as he heard the blond’s voice getting louder and louder. He stopped his round and went back to the first cell, hand on the sword hanging from his side, but he sheathed it again when he saw that Kise was pulling and pushing his red-haired companion, desperately calling his name.

The man dangled helplessly within his friend’s reach, his head snapping from side to side, offering no resistance at all. When the other cupped his face to check on him, he looked extremely pale, his lips a worrying shade of purple and his eyes closed.

Seto cursed as he scrambled to find the key of the cell within the bunch hanging from his belt, but he was ready enough to call for Hara and Furuhashi in a loud voice before opening the door.

Kise was ignoring him, still calling Akashi’s name with growing fear, and Seto grabbed him by the hair and slammed him against the only wooden wall of the cell, the one opposite to the door. Ryouta wailed when his nape was pulled and then impacted with the wood, his body slumping down and standing there, trembling in shivers of pain, unable to hold him on his feet.

Seto then grabbed Akashi’s fringe, forced his head forward, leaned on and placed a finger under his nose, but he didn’t feel any air against his skin.

He cursed again, because Hanamiya wanted to have fun with the Emperor’s favorite dog, and when Hara and Furuhashi moved to enter the cell too, the first one asking what was going on, he simply yelled at them to get fucking Midorima and Hanamiya.

He pushed his fingers against Seijuro’s throat, searching for a pulse that he finally found, but gritting his teeth because it was low.

“Move your fucking ass, doctor!” he yelled, back on his feet, as he turned to Furuhashi.

Midorima was dragged forcefully to the cell, making him stumble and hiss, but when he was pushed in and noticed Akashi he let go of all the complains on his lips. He knelt in front of him checking for his pulse just like Seto shortly before and he muttered some curses under his breath.

“He’s dying!” he growled, pushing Akashi’s body forward to look at the injury in his shoulder, “It infected!”

“How come?”

Kise sucked his breath in suddenly, but stood crouched on the floor even when Hanamiya’s velvet voice shut all the noises down.

Everybody turned to him and Ryouta, even though he wanted nothing more than to stare at Seijuro, forced himself to lift his head to look at the captain, an honest worry written all over his face. Not that Hanamiya deigned him of any attention.

“What a fast infection, don’t you think the same, Midorima _-sensei_?” he kept on, walking calmly down the manhole and to the cell, “He looked perfectly fine just yesterday and now he’s suddenly dying?”

“He looked all but fine, yesterday, just everybody else, nanodayo!” Midorima retorted bravely, his hands still on Akashi’s shoulders but his eyes fixed on Hanamiya’s face, blazing with fury, “This air is killing us!”

But Hanamiya dismissed his care with a wave of the hand that made Kise’s eyes widened at the absolute indifference toward all the human lives at stake. The pirate just walked to the entrance of the cell, but didn’t step in and just made a face.

“This place indeed smells.” he simply commented, as if they were talking about the weather, “But I guess you can’t expect anything else from a bunch of rats.”

A loud bang made all the men turn to see that Kise had just slammed his fist against the floor in a desperate rebellion. He was still crouched and trembling, but his gaze was predatory, utterly dangerous and scary.

He didn’t say anything, he didn’t need to, and Hanamiya just clicked his tongue at him, but then looked down at Akashi once more.

“I still find it weird for the infection to be so fast…” he repeated, but Midorima opened up one of the rips in the shirt to show the ugly wound, badly held together by a sewing that had been ruined by the whip, thread ripped in correspondence of the long cuts of the lashes, and it was so dirty in dried blood and sweat and dust that there was no way to deny or confirm if the infection was there or not. Common sense said it was.

“He hadn’t told anything because he was too busy worrying for his comrade, nanodayo!”

The wound was bad, really. Kise hadn’t realized it was _that_ bad. He shivered at the thought of the pain it must bring.

“I commend him for his noble action and selfless attitude.” Hanamiya commented lazily as he turned to move back to the deck.

He stopped at the bottom of the manhole, his eyes fixed on the little figure that had just come downstairs and whose eyes were fixed on the red-head’s back and bared shoulder, less apathetic than usually. When Kuroko gulped a bit and finally met his eyes, a silent beg in his, Hanamiya grinned.

“Cast him overboard.” he ordered, savoring the slight flinch in Tetsuya’s frame when he added, “ _With the cuffs on_.”

 

***

 

Midorima froze, Kise’s eyes widened, but Kuroko stood impassive as Hanamiya approached him after his last sentence, a wicked smile on his lips.

He didn’t move even when Makoto caressed his face with the back of his hand, slowly trailing downwards to wrap its fingers around his throat, just enough for him to feel the threat but far from the strength that would have been necessary to hurt him in any way.

“We don’t want for him to wake up and get to the shore, uh?”

Kuroko didn’t gulp, didn’t talk, didn’t move his eyes from Hanamiya’s.

Not when he heard the clanging sound of Akashi’s chains being opened and unwrapped from the bars of the grate and then closed again around his flesh; not when Seto grunted for the weight of the body on his shoulder; not when a march of pirates walked beside him and Hanamiya to move on the deck.

“Oh, come on, Tetsu-chan.” Makoto chanted releasing his grip to caress Kuroko’s face once more, “Don’t cry, please.”

Kise returned from his daze just in time to lift his eyes and see that Kuroko wasn’t crying at all, but had his gaze turned downward, his little fists clenched and… he couldn’t tell what in particular, but an aura of desperation all over him. Maybe it was the slumped shoulders, maybe the slightly opened mouth that seemed on the verge of letting out something but instead kept silent. Maybe it was the unfocused way those pale blue orbs stared at the floor.

Hanamiya was clearly pleased with the defeated appearance of his little prize.

“Your voice will be rough tonight if you cry now.” he only said and that sentence made Kuroko snap.

Kise looked at the kid turning and hastily moving upstairs, followed immediately by Makoto’s laughter and a bit slower by the man himself. It was only when the both of them had left that he realized completely just what had happened.

“…he’ll drown…” came out of his lips in a low and almost incredulous whisper, but his voice grew a bit louder as he got on his hands and knees and tried to crawl to the grate closer to the manhole, “He’ll drown!”

 

***

 

“Where do you think you’re going, Tecchan?”

Kuroko stopped in his tracks, just two steps from the manhole, and even if he didn’t want to, his eyes lifted to follow Seto’s figure approaching the railing, Akashi’s body carelessly slumped over his shoulder.

His fists clenched.

“Do not worry,” Makoto’s voice groped his mind in the same disturbing way his hand was doing with his chest, arm sneaking around his waist from behind and keeping him still as his other palm ran up and down Tetsuya’s other side, “he’s not that heavy that you need to help.”

 

***

 

“Kise…” Midorima tried to…something. He wasn’t sure if he should have stopped the other or if he was just helping him reach his vain goal, but it didn’t matter because the blond shrugged him off.

“No!” he yelled, terrified, “He’ll _drown_! He won’t be able to swim with he cuffs! He will _drown_!”

“Kise, calm dow-”

“NO! We need to stop them!”

“Kise!”

“No! No, no, no, no! Akashicchi! Akashicchi!”

Midorima cursed under his breath as he tried to pry the blond man from the grate he was wrapped around, as if really believing he could stretch his arm out enough to take his friend back. He was pulling him once more, trying to bring him back to his senses before he caught too much attention on himself, when a deep rumbling voice called his name.

He turned as his mind barely registered the at last familiar squealing “I’m sorry!” in Sakurai’s terrified voice, but his eyes were caught by a thing flying from a cell deeper in the below deck and falling against the bar of his. Ryou kept on apologizing who knew whom to, but Shintarou ignored him to meet a pair of deep blue irises staring at him meaningfully.

His glare asked a question Aomine’s only answered by laying on the leather flask, now abandoned on the floor.

Kise was still screaming, restless in Midorima’s grip, and the doctor knew in that very moment that this captivity had at last made him lose his mind, for he ran to the grate, grabbed the flask and pulled it in.

He had no idea what it could be holding, but he opened it with his teeth as he wrapped an arm around Ryouta’s neck from behind and forced his chin up to push the nuzzle within those surprised open lips.

Kise chocked at the liquid suddenly filling his mouth, running down his throat and spilling in his lungs as he desperately fought for air, but Midorima’s arms were strong, unbelievably so, and kept him still. With no choice, he gulped down a huge mouthful.

 

***

 

“He’s still alive.”

Kuroko had never pleaded. Never in his life. That was just as he’d been raised. _Be stoic, be firm, be emotionless and cold. Don’t you ever dare to cry._ Since when he had been forced on Hanamiya’s ship, he had seen death close enough to recognize her shadow from miles; he had seen all kinds of misery and sadness, had seen what men could do to even those who were their own kind. He had watched the sea gulp down corpses the same way he was now gulping air, helplessly and vainly, a useless gesture of swallowing _emptiness_.

It was _his_ plan. _He_ had been too scared of the little time they had and made the mistake to think Hanamiya wouldn’t have suspected anything. It was _him_ , not Akashi.

“Yeah, Doctor-chan had said it too, but he apparently hasn’t much time left to live anyway, with that bad infection of his.” Makoto commented lazily, faking a yawn.

Seto slumped Akashi on the railing, halfway out of it, slowly and wasting time, clearly conscious of his audience and of his captain’s wish for a show of dominance. 

“Or perhaps…” Kuroko’s shoulders were so stiff they hurt, his body cold — _so cold_ — in Hanamiya’s grip. The man’s hands roaming on him left warm traces that died fast against his icy skin, but that didn’t stop his voice. “…you maybe know something the dear doctor doesn’t?”

 

***

 

It burned.

It burned so much his eyes teared up and his body convulsed as he started coughing and spitting and almost throwing up all at the same time. It burned so much he didn’t notice Midorima had let him go in a rush, as if scared.

Kise didn’t even notice him smelling the content of the flask and cursing again.

“Aomine!” the doctor roared, turning to face the pirate chained to the bars of his cell just as Seijuro had been only a moment before, “What is this, nanodayo?!”

But Daiki didn’t show any kind of remorse. Only an old grey feeling that made him look nostalgic in a painful way as he stared at Kise as if he was trying to caress and comfort him with his eyes.

“Something strong enough to give him a break for a bit, hopefully.” he only said.

 

***

 

Hanamiya liked to win, just like everybody else, but not as much as people seemed to think. He liked power and gold and fame, but they all bored him in the long run. 

But the look of despair on a man’s face after perfectly pulling off a plan, the pain in their eyes as he took from them everything, as he crushed them under his foot like bugs… That kind of feeling, he would never grow tired of.

As he lifted a hand to caress Tetsuya’s cheeks, he could feel his masterpiece finally starting to come out the way he wanted it to.

Kuroko had been an untouchable fortress since when Hanamiya had forbade him from leaving. 

At first, when they scoped him, Makoto had acted like the good samaritan, trying to get some informations from him, and Kuroko had sung for him in return. And that voice, oh… He sighed lightly, dreamily almost, at the thought of that perfect sweat voice.

When Tetsuya had said he was healed and would have left soon, he simply couldn’t let him do that. 

At first, he had locked him up in a cell, but that had only led the kid to refuse to sing for him anymore. Hanamiya had thought he was going crazy without that voice anymore, he _needed_ it! But Kuroko had been the strongest wall he had ever had to take down. Stubbornly silent against his threats, incorruptible with bribes not even after he had been starved for days, and when Makoto was at his limit and grabbed a whip and _used it_ , gone mad without _his songs_ , Tetsuya had yelled and cried, but not budged. 

In the end, before he had realized Kuroko was interested in Aomine, he had always been the one who had to gave up. His threats useless, his bribe given even without anything in return because otherwise the other would have let himself die of starvation, and Seto had actually had to stop him before he killed that little bastard the only time he had actually tortured him. It had gone on for the worst and longest week Makoto had ever hat to endure.

He had moved to a gentler approach after that, letting Tetsuya out of his cell since he was too weak to go anywhere anyway and they were in high sea, but with someone preventing him from jumping outboard. And he had tried that, four times indeed, even if they were in the middle of the damn ocean. 

Yes, before Aomine had to great idea to befriend the kid and Makoto realized Daiki was the only weak point in that unbreakable shield, Kuroko had never bowed to him.

Even now, Hanamiya knew he wouldn’t. Begging, pleading, the desperate humiliation he wanted to see from Tetsuya, Makoto knew wouldn’t come this time around either.

He hummed something under his breath, the rhythm of one of the songs Tetsuya sang to him, as he met eyes with Seto, who had been checking Akashi didn’t have any keys or instruments on and that his chains were properly locked. 

His second in command nodded that everything was ready, if he still wanted to go on.

Hanamiya had to admit, as he moved his gaze on Kuroko’s face and his hand to tug childishly at a pale blue lock on his temple, that he was almost sad about killing the great Akashi Seijuro that way. He hadn’t planned to keep him for long anyway, just ‘till when he would have finally seen those annoying superb eyes completely void of hope, but he had wanted to have more fun. He was so much looking forward to see him struggle and fight to protect that friend of his when he would have been ready for the oars, and lately he had also thought to see he could have had a…new value.

Kuroko’s eyes still wouldn’t leave Akashi’s body.

What Makoto wouldn’t have given to see how that situation could have evolved if only he had had the time to let Tetsuya even closer to the officer, just close to his heart content. But…

“I won’t let anybody think they can fool me, Tecchan.” His hand ran deeper into Tetsuya hair and grabbed them at their roots, savoring the pained expression that flashed on his face for a moment and then pulling to keep it still, turned to the railing, as he nodded to his second in command, “Not even you.”

Seto gave the final push.

 

***

 

Midorima was trembling, pulled in two different directions from two different instincts within him. 

His need to protect Kise’s life, as a doctor, was yelling at him to shove a finger down the man’s throat and make him throw up whatever kind of disgustingly strong alcohol Aomine had given him — indirectly, but still —; yet the man he had been in the Navy, grumpy and complaining and _so stupid not to grab his chance_ , was silently looking at him from a corner of his mind, an whole message in his gaze, as he stood just besides all the memories of healing recruits who were too careless during training and of raven black hair and bright grey eyes and a smile that could lit up the whole room.

Rage and helplessness kept on dwelling in him, now fueled now weakened by Kise’s wails and coughs and broken attempts at calling his friend again, but everything vanished when above them he heard the sound of something cutting air just on the other side of the wooden wall of their cell.

He had Kise’s face in his grip and the flask nuzzle deep inside the man’s mouth before the frighteningly familiar splash could reach him.

 

***

 

Kuroko watched it all. 

Not because Hanamiya was forcing him to, he could have just closed his eyes, but because he thought Akashi — determined, honest, proud Akashi who was so similar to him, whom he had felt so close to — deserved at least that much.

Kuroko didn’t cry.

For once, though, he felt very close to do so.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story's summary: literally everyone suffers.


	3. Part III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _For this month, for the past six, and for the next eight waiting for you._

 

**Through Gold and Iron Chains**

**Part III**

He had trained long to be able to hold his breath for seven whole consecutive minutes, but the closer he got to that record and the faster his heart beat. As long as he kept it under the four minutes, though, he could hold his cardiac pace to a low rhythm that allowed him to waste little energy. A bit of wine smeared on his lips, his naturally pale skin and he was the perfect moribund.

He hadn’t been as naïve as Tetsuya to think Hanamiya wouldn’t get suspicious, but for a little moment he too had panicked at the mention of the cuffs.

Still, Kuroko and Kise’s screams gave him time enough to recover and get mentally ready to push their plan a little _further_ than expected.

He resumed his breathing, now that he didn’t have to pretend to be dead anymore, but he kept it low to make sure they didn’t bring him back to the cell and he waited. He suffered the rough treatment Seto used in handling him by focusing on Hanamiya’s taunting words, but that way he had to restrain himself from turning and trying to strangle the pirate with his own cuffs.

Kuroko’s only attempt to have him spared was a cold and short sentence, but he knew it was because Hanamiya would have only grew crueler at any word added. 

Through his red locks, hiding his cracked open lids, he spied on the way Makoto touched Tetsuya, clearly with possession and a stubborn determination to get him to crumble. It wasn’t something sexual, even if it seemed so; it was just another way to humiliate Tetsuya, to remind him of how little and weak and helpless he was in his captor’s hands.

Akashi gritted his teeth and then was pushed overboard.

 

***

 

Makoto watched, sheepishly satisfied, the round waves that were slowing down and melting back into the main body of the sea and then he turned to Kuroko.

The kid had now his head turned to a side, refusing to stare, but held high, and an arm still in the captain’s grip.

“Uh-uh…” Makoto singsonged, unfazed, “No remorse at all?”

Tetsuya didn’t answer, but as soon as the pirate left his arm, he detached from the railing and went back to the captain’s apartments, slamming the door loudly behind himself.

Hanamiya only chuckled before returning to Seto, clearly satisfied.

“Let’s go to the tavern.” he declared.

 

***

 

Akashi would have cursed the freezing water had he had any breath to spare. He didn’t, so he just fought the shocking moment of the impact while trying not to let out any of his precious air and then he opened his eyes.

The salt made them burn painfully and he found himself staring helplessly at the sun through the water, after days of half-darkness. He wondered if his eyes would turn teary in simple air, but discarded the thought fast.

He wouldn’t have any air more if he didn’t get out of this trouble _now._

The cuffs themselves weren’t that heavy, he could have probably swam — even if definitely not for long — with them on, but having his arms tied behind his back was an whole different matter.

He wished, for a moment, to be able to take a deep breath before carrying on the only ordeal he could think of on the time before he was thrown, but then he kicked with his legs, moving himself with his head toward the surface that was fast leaving from his reach.

He moved his shoulders, bent his legs to lie his feet on his tied wrists and then, all curled as he was, he thanked the gods his shoulder was so numb in pain. Then, he pushed with his feet and pulled with his whole body. Pain came back to him, a powerful wave that ripped some precious silver bubbles out of his lips, and as he still sunk lower and lower he saw the scarlet rivulets his body was leaving behind, but ignored them. 

He didn’t hear the usual sickening crack that accompanied a broken bone, but the pain was there, taking other bubbles away as he kicked desperately, almost unknowingly, and suddenly his injured shoulder went soft, unresisting, allowing his arm movements it _shouldn’t have been able to do._

His cuffed wrists slipped under his feet and he looked at them, they too surrounded by the evanescent crimson arabesques, with his lungs burning scorchingly and his shoulder hurting as if some creature was ripping him open through that wound, determined to expose everything that he had inside. He closed his eyes, crazy in pain, and his nose was burning too now, but somehow he still managed to found his legs.

They were kicking out of rhythm and coordination, but he managed to put them back to work. With his only usable arm taking the broken one with it, he outstretched his hands toward the sky and wriggled and tossed and tried ‘till when his freezing fingers broke the water surface.

He threw them higher, desperate for an holding, and he was almost surprised when his good hand indeed grabbed something, something raw and cold that scraped his fingers when he wrapped them around it and pulled his head out.

_Air!_

He gasped, water flowing out of his mouth half as if he was puking and half as if it was its own will to leave, and Akashi needed long moments to resumed his breath. His throat and lungs burning, awfully damaged. His temple was leaning against the thing he had grabbed on and only after a while he managed to open his eyes again and look at what it was.

A rope.

It shouldn’t surprise him, it was still a ship, it had a lot of ropes everywhere, but when he lifted his head, he knew that chord wasn’t supposed to be there.

Not mentioning the fact it was dangling from the captain’s study window, Kuroko’s pale blue eyes were staring down at him as he leant forward trying to decide if Akashi was still alive or not.

He was, and he built up all of his remaining strength to wrap the rope around his still chained wrists and to gesture to Tetsuya to pull.

 

***

 

Carrying Akashi back on the ship was a long and difficult work, mainly because Kuroko was honestly the weakest creature Seijuro had ever come across to. He could only be grateful that the whole ship was hiding his sight from the docks or someone would have already gave the alarm before he reached midway.

When he finally managed to get his upper half inside the ship, he fell ruinously on the floor, still coughing water and trembling in pain.

Kuroko’s hands were just as cold as usual, but they felt scorching hot through the coldness of his soaked clothes.

“We need to warm you up, Akashi-kun.” Tetsuya said, almost ordered, “You’ll freeze this way.”

Seijuro tried to shook his head, still on his side on the floor. “The box.”

Kuroko bit his lower lip, clearly unsure, but then he helped Akashi crawling, his shoulder now completely out of use but at least now numbed enough not to hurt that much, to a wall and laid him with his back against it as he disappeared in the biggest door.

Around Akashi was a huge room with an elegant lunch table covered in papers, maps probably, and vases and silver trays all around. It was probably Makoto’s dining room and after some deep breaths, Seijuro managed to pulled himself to his knees and then on a trembling upright position.

Makoto’s place was already set and Akashi felt a wave of disgust when saw that there was another plate, one of the same pale blue of Kuroko’s hair, right in front of his. There were silver cutlery and crystal glasses, silk napkins, luxury. For some reason, Seijuro was sure Tetsuya had felt the worst because of all those cares he was being reserved when his friends were down in the cells.

He frowned.

Why was he so sure about that? He didn’t know Kuroko that much, they had just an alliance, yet Akashi felt like he knew every secret of that mysterious mask. Or better, he knew he didn’t know a lot of things, but they were…useless? In the end, it didn’t matter where he was from as long as Seijuro could trust him to keep Kise safe. And Seijuro had never been one to trust easily.

His shoulders relaxed when Kuroko suddenly appeared back from the study and he realized his trembling had subdued. Tetsuya had the box in his hands and was looking at it as if it could explode in his hands, as if it hold the worst monster of the depths of the sea. It was almost endearing to see.

Akashi widened his eyes when, before handing him the box, Kuroko took the sheet that had been under it and draped it with a single hand around his shoulders.

“Akashi-san, please, don’t die.” he said, apathetically and completely empty of any emotion despite the words he was saying, “Who’s going to open the box if you do? Aomine-kun is too dumb for such a task.”

Seijuro rolled his eyes, but tried to sit up straighter and then crossed his legs loosely, leaving a seat open in between his thighs. He stared at Kuroko just as blankly as he was.

“Sit here.”

Kuroko looked taken aback for a second, before a slight shade on his forehead seemed to make him look dangerously offended.

“I decline.”

Akashi realized that, had he met Kuroko in any other situation, he would have loved to tease him to elicit that kind of expression and reaction every time he had the occasion. He felt a pang of sadness at the thought things weren’t like that at all.

“My shoulder is broken.” he said then, pointing with his chin at the box still in Tetsuya’s hands, “I need to borrow one of your arms or I won’t be able to open it. There are often pieces that need to be moved at the same time.”

Kuroko didn’t seem convinced, but he stared down at the box for a while, brows furrowed in a childish manner, and in the end he sighed.

Akashi stood perfectly still as the other turned and sat in between his legs and he tried to wrap the blanket on his shoulders so that it worked as a shield in between his cold and wet self and Kuroko’s warm and dry body. It wouldn’t work for long, but he hoped it was enough, then he stared at the box.

Kuroko had been right. It sat perfectly on Tetsuya’s crossed legs and its honeyed and brown shades covered every possible hint to the secret mechanisms to open it. Seijuro slipped his good arm around the other man and ran his fingers on the surface, pressing gently here and there, looking for any difference in texture or resistance. He felt some stiffening in the back he was leaning against, but he forced himself to ignore it.

_Click._

“Found one.” he whispered, pushing slightly a piece of the geometric pattern of the right side of the box toward the outside. The piece slipped of half an inch at most but it locked itself nicely in the new position. Kuroko sucked his breath in. “Try to touch the correspondent piece on the other side.”

Tetsuya’s hands were little, Akashi realized, and extremely thin. They moved as smoothly as seaweeds on the surface, gently trying some of the pieces. When the one Akashi had pointed out moved, Kuroko’s back relaxed in relief.

Slowly, Seijuro tested the other pieces, but nothing seemed to move if not a couple of piece that still wouldn’t leave their positions. When the two of them tried pushing at the same time, they moved.

“You need two hands to open this.” Kuroko muttered and Akashi thought for a moment he was pouting, but shook the thought away.

“People usually do have two.” he reminded, frowning, “How much does Hanamiya usually stay at the tavern?”

Kuroko seemed to flinch and his back pushed against Akashi’s chest, but it was so subtle Seijuro couldn’t be sure. “Around a couple of hours, no more.” he said, though, “He doesn’t like to leave the ship for long.”

_Two hours should be more than enough._ , Seijuro reasoned as he resumed touching the box. He asked Kuroko to turn it on its back side to examine the front and as his fingers hovered on the spot where the lock would usually be, he realized they didn’t really have an after-plan. 

Once they got the medallion, Kuroko would call for help while Akashi would stay behind on the shore and find the help of the navy. Tetsuya’s task was to sink the Kirisaki and take those four prisoners out, but that’s as far as they went. 

A piece on the left side, the one immediately under it, one on the right side.

Akashi couldn’t intervene directly, because if the Kirisaki got the flagship cannons, he would only get more men in Hanamiya’s hands; if they realized they were followed by the navy and that he was with them, they would either use Kise as hostage or push the men at the rows to their deaths. 

The piece in the highest left corner, the one in the lowest left one. Only by logic, Akashi went straight to the highest right and then asked Kuroko for the lowest left.

Their only chance was for Tetsuya’s ship, that had no insignia, to manage a surprise attack to the Kirisaki. After that, Akashi would retrieve Kise and all the prisoners that had been freed at the other side of the Strait of Touou; but before that, he would have to leave everything to Kuroko and his unknown allies.

He slicked a piece downward and a couple of the other two popped to the outside on the cover of the box.

Akashi wasn’t stupid and he knew Kuroko could have easily betrayed him. 

Pushing the pieces back in their places, slipping a third one on the upper side of the cover. The whole right side wall of the box moved a couple of millimeters to the outside.

Tetsuya only needed someone to open the box, then he was on his own. If he wanted, he could have easily disposed of Akashi and forgotten about Kise with no remorse at all. Between the two of them, Seijuro had the advantage only for as long as the box was locked. But to save himself and Ryouta, he had to open it.

_How frustrating._ , he bit his lips as Kuroko helped him move the box to slip something out of the little opening. It looked like a comb with only three teeth and Tetsuya took it gently, frowning. Akashi took the moment to spy on him.

He had helped healing Ryouta. Helped with his shoulder, protected him at the rows and for some reason Akashi felt like he was honest in all of his words, but still what if it came down to risk Aomine’s or Midorima’s or Murasakibara’s lives to save Kise’s? Akashi wouldn’t have bet on that one. Kuroko had nothing to do with him, but he had his friends to save.

“What should we do with this?” Tetsuya’s eyes were wide and blue and Akashi’s voice was low and tired when he told him to turn the box to let him check all the faces.

Moving the pieces around had created three little holes on the frontal face, more or less at the first third from the right side of the box cover. The comb’s teeth fitted in perfectly and pushed open the left side a bit, revealing a new comb, this time with four teeth.

Akashi let Tetsuya look for the right spot to place it in and he closed his eyes to take a deep breath. His shoulder was hurting again now that he was regaining some sensibility from the cold, and it was so much he almost didn’t hear the click of the comb slipping in the posterior face of the box. Kuroko nodded to himself absentmindedly.

“Fifteen moves.” Akashi frowned, “We’re halfway through.”

Tetsuya nodded, but he was sweating slightly. He too, probably, wanted to finish the fastest they could. They also had to lock the box again and get Seijuro out of that room, so they needed to be fast and to remember perfectly every step.

“They don’t… They don’t move…” Seijuro snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Kuroko’s voice and saw his hands moving frenetically on the box, pushing and pulling with no results, “Akashi-san, they don’t move.”

“Calm down.” Akashi’s fingers were paler than Kuroko, and not in a health way, but he managed to touch properly every possible spot, finding some loose tiles that still wouldn’t budge. He stared at their position, before trying pulling one of the combs out of its place.

Nothing changed, so he tried removing the other also, but it still stood as it was. When he placed the first back in its place, but kept the second out, one of the pieces finally moved. Both he and Tetsuya sighed lowly in relief.

They searched the whole box before trying to pull out the second comb and getting another move done. The lid of the box slid upward of a millimeter, but Seijuro guessed it was a trick, considering they were still at the eighteenth move, and pushed it back down and then some more, toward Tetsuya’s stomach. Something clicked in the inside and a piece moved on the back wall.

Kuroko moved the box and let Akashi moved four pieces around, as if in circle. The lid came back to its place and Tetsuya seemed to push more into Seijuro’s chest.

“I’m not sure I can remember…”

“I do.” Akashi’s free hand left the box to gently touch Kuroko’s wrist. Tetsuya was tense again. “Don’t think about it. We need to open this, first.”

Seijuro slipped back in the first piece they had moved. Tetsuya pushed the second. At the same time they place the side walls back in their original place. Kuroko kept the box still as Akashi pushed the lid slightly away from their bodies. The pieces were all back together now; of all the movements they had done, no trace was left.

_Twenty-eight moves._ There was one left, but it was weird because no place was to go back to the whole. Akashi stared, thinking, before his fingers lingered against Tetsuya’s navel, looking for the front.

He pushed the piece where should have been the lock.

_Click._

Kuroko jerked as the lid popped a bit, freed from its restrains, but Akashi smiled.

_I always win._

Lifting the lid showed them the intricate thickness, a couple of inches even,  of every wall hiding away all the mechanisms of the locks. In the middle of the box was a hole and in the had been thrown the most precious jewels of the treasure.

Kuroko’s jewel stood out. Akashi didn’t know how to explain he knew it was the one they were looking for, but the medallion had a simple rope and looked like a big gold doubloon with a intricate arabesque carved on. It seemed like a series of empty spaces of different size and shape had been carved in, but seen together they looked a lot like ropes tied together around something circular. He outstretched a hand to take it, but his skin touched instead Tetsuya’s, as he too had been trying to reclaim his possession.

They looked at each other, but in the end it was Akashi who pulled back. Rationally speaking, he knew he had no choice but to go on with the plan.

“I have done my part.” he whispered, feeling dread settling in the pit of his stomach. _Kise_. “Now it’s your turn.”

Kuroko looked at him as if knowing his thoughts one by one. Silent, he nodded and moved to turn and stand on his knees in front of Akashi.

“You can count on me.” he promised, “I will protect Kise-kun at all costs.” Akashi wasn’t sure about that, but before he could say something, Kuroko’s eyes seemed to soften a bit. “And I won’t be the only one.”

Seijuro frowned, confused, but Tetsuya got up and offered him a hand to stand on his feet. Akashi was far steadier now, even if not exactly at his best. He could feel his shoulder pounding in a painful way and he knew it was only a matter of time before his body finally gave up on him. He just hoped the cold sea water wouldn’t be enough to make him faint. It would be dumb to drown right now.

They laid the box on the table and Kuroko slowly reproduced backwards the steps they had done to open it. Akashi looked at him while taking the blanket off his back, but still couldn’t help the bad feeling within.

Tetsuya missed a step and Akashi outstretched a hand to stop him, gently grabbing his wrist. Had he been more aware of his surroundings and less of the box, he would have noticed sooner, but that way he could only saw the black figure behind the glasses on the doors from a corner of his eye, too late to hide or anything.

“DOWN!” he ordered, pushing Tetsuya on the floor with himself just in time before the glass shattered following a loud bang.

Kuroko gasped, both for the hit on the floor and Akashi’s weight on him and for the sudden sound, but Akashi was fast enough to turn and grab the knife on the table before turning to the opening door.

“Oh, my, my~” Hanamiya joked, spying on them from behind the shattered window, “The two of you are too much similar in height, I almost accidentally aimed at my precious Tecchan!”

Akashi gritted his teeth, his grip with the good hand strong on the weak weapon.

“How long would it take for you to give the medallion to the seagull?”

“Seconds, I hope.”

“I’m creating an opening.” he whispered, shielding Tetsuya from Hanamiya’s eyes, “Bolt for the door as soon as he’s distracted.”

Hanamiya opened the door drawing his sword, a wicked smile on his lips, but Seijuro didn’t let him say anything.

He was faster. It would have been safer to wait for the pirate to attack, but Akashi’s goal wasn’t to win that dance of blades. He needed to get Tetsuya out on the deck, thus he attacked first.

Hanamiya avoided easily the first blow, but Seijuro was just as fast in using his blade to stop the other’s sword. Sparkles came out from the hits they exchanged and Akashi’s broken shoulder was crying out in pain, making him grit his teeth and fight to move all of his attention to the challenge. He pushed and Hanamiya took a playful step to a side, as if to mock him, but it was enough.

Seijuro roared as he tried to press his enemy just enough to keep him where he was and he knew it not as much from the soft rustle of the wind when Tetsuya ran behind him as from the way Makoto’s eyes widened in rage and mindlessness.

“SETO! STOP HIM!” he called, so lost in his fear of his obsession leaving that he completely ignored his actual challenger, and Akashi used the second of distraction to push the knife under the other’s guard and stuck it in his shoulder.

_Such a sweet revenge._ , he thought, grinning only for a second, and he could have sworn his own wound stopped hurting, placated by the payment it had received.

He pulled the blade out again to draw a pained curse out of Hanamiya and his hands ached to push it in once more and again and again, thirsty for blood, but the alarmed voices from outside brought him back to reality.

_The plan. Kise._ , he told himself, turning his back to Hanamiya to run to the deck, one arm dangling helpless and the other hand clutching on a bloodied knife. _Tetsuya._

Kuroko was half outside the ship, his arm outstretched to the sea and to a huge seagull who was trying to slip his head inside the circle of rope, but Seto was behind him, fighting to pull him back inside. Tetsuya was trashing, screaming words that came off as incomprehensible to Seijuro, but the strength of the pirate was too superior and it was clear who was going to win the fight.

Tetsuya turned only a bit and slashed Seto’s face with his free hand curled as if to pull out claws. It was enough to shake him a bit, but not to let him lose his grip. Akashi’s knife burying in his armpit managed to, though, but also to make Kuroko lose his balance.

Seijuro wasn’t sure about what was happening. There were other hands trying to get him and he tried to keep them all at bait with the knife, but everything was blurry, unfocused, and it was getting hard to keep a grip on reality. He was trying to use his dumb arm as a shield for blows he knew he couldn’t stop, but his mind couldn’t leave Tetsuya’s frame at his side.

Kuroko pushed himself further outside the parapet to try to reach for the scared seagull.

Akashi jerked when he heard the shot.

 

***

 

Aomine pulled at his chains with all of his strength once more making the whole grate tremble, unable to stand still as the sound of a fight went on.

All the prisoners were restless, calling and shouting and trying to understand what was happening and how they could turn that into an occasion to escape, and only two of them were immune at the shared activity.

Midorima shielded Kise’s body with his, locking it against the furthest grate from the manhole, when he heard Seto’s enraged voice calling out Akashi’s name and his bandaged hand ran to cover the ear the other didn’t have pressed against his chest. He had pushed the blond man in that position when he had heard the first shot and when a barrel had fallen within the manhole and crushed sending shards of wood everywhere. Some of them had stuck into Shintarou’s back as he turned. Now, he hissed something through his teeth before looking down at his patient’s pale face, trembling body and unfocused eyes.

Ryouta was drunk and delirious, on the verge of passing out but stubbornly clinging to his need to save Akashi to keep lucid. His hands were clutching desperately on the doctor’s shirt as if to reality, yet he didn’t seem to be present enough to realize what was going on around him.

When a second shot was heard, Midorima pressed Kise closer to him and harsher against the grate and cursed once more.

He should have stopped caring for idiots like these.

 

***

 

Akashi jerked, turning like everybody else, and the silent would have been complete if not for Tetsuya’s desperate cry.

When Seijuro managed to clear his sight enough, he saw Kuroko holding his arm against his chest, his hand bleeding profusely, but keeping his eyes, widened and terrified, on the waves.

The seagull flied down toward the water, but then high again when realizing there was nothing he could catch anymore.

Akashi’s good arm went weak as he ran the only two steps separating him from the parapet. Kuroko turned to look at him in fear, but they couldn’t exchange any word.

“I should have done it earlier!” Akashi turned his head toward Hanamiya’s crazy voice, seeing the man with an expression of pure rage throwing away the second used up gun. Makoto grabbed Hara and pulled out the gun from his belt, aiming it straight to Seijuro’s head, “I won’t let you have Tecchan! His voice is mine! MINE!”

Akashi only heard the third shot before a dark and liquid feeling brought him to oblivion.

 

***

 

Midorima clenched his teeth at Hanamiya’s obsessive screams and Kise flinched, but he kept him still. 

There was silence in the cells too, now. All the prisoners but one were staring at the manhole, trying to understand. Aomine was staring at Midorima with the same face he had the day he had lost Satsuki.

“Tetsu…?” he tried to say, but Shintarou didn’t have the heart to answer him some pointless lie. 

He didn’t have to anymore when Hanamiya’s desperate voice filled the air in anguish.

 

***

 

The sea was cold. Cold like the caress of a long awaited lover that had just entered the door, cold like a winter wind filled with children’s laughters. It engulfed his body perfectly. It didn’t neglect a single inch of skin as it helped him slipping out of it graciously.

When cold became warm and skin turned into foam and long hair caressed his back, he finally turned, eyes scanning the darkening depths searching for something.

Red stood out nicely in the sea of blue and the blood trail following the sinking body was a tempting trace he followed sniffing and drinking it in need. When he found the body, though, he stopped.

His arms stretched out carefully, embracing wounds and strength at the same time, keeping together that precious body and arresting its fall.

Kuroko’s lips spelled “Seijuro” before laying softly against Akashi’s.

 

***

 

Kise woke up in pain.

His head hurt, his eyes burned, his body was trembling out of control and his heart… his heart ached for his mind still remembered.

He pulled his knees to his chest difficulty and hugged them trying to racimolate some warmth as he hid his face against them. He mouthed silently Akashi’s name for he had no voice left.

The silence was deafening. Everybody’s gaze was low and hallucinated, even Midorima’s as the man sat with his back against the wall of the ship, in that same cell, trying to read who knew what in the veins of the wooden floor.

Hanamiya’s desperation had been clear as he shouted at his men to “fish him up! Find him! Find him now!”.

“Wakamatsu.” Midorima flinched a bit, his gaze moving to Aomine’s still and tense frame, but the other wasn’t looking at anything but his fists around the chains locking his hands to the bars of his cell, above his head. “Ryo knows where I keep the liquor Tetsu gave me. If you get Seto to make us exchange cell, I’ll let you have it all.”

Midorima blinked, confused, but Wakamatsu just sighed.

“You better not being keeping it in the fucking latrine, you heard me, asshole?” he growled, but moved to his feet to stare down on Kise for a second. He looked at Midorima. “Make him throw up.”

Shintarou was far too tired to ask for explanations he knew he wouldn’t get.

 

***

 

When Seto finally got to the belowdecks, it was late night and he was fucking pissed.

After Akashi’s return on the ship and the consequent fight, Makoto had tried to shot him, but that dumbass Kuroko had instead preferred grabbing him from behind and throwing the both of them outboard. Seto had known what would have happened, but hadn’t managed to grabbed them before the gesture. Hanamiya had gone out of his mind, yelling and ordering and furiously trashing. They had had to try rescuing the two prisoners for _hours_ before getting Hanamiya to give up and let them back on the ship.

Now, the last thing he wanted was a fucking fight between prisoners.

“Shut the fuck up, Ahomine! It’s disgusting!”

“Shut your trap, Waka! What are you, an high-class bitch?!”

“As if you’ve ever seen one, you bastard!”

“What the fuck is going on here?!” Seto’s roar made Kise’s quivering figure, beside the latrine, tremble in unconscious fear as Midorima’s arms keep on holding him. The doctor’s right hand was wet in the other’s salive, but Seto wasn’t going to notice it anytime soon.

“The fucking princess has been throwing up since an hour!” Wakamatsu made a disgusted sound, “I’m not going to sleep in the cell near him, he may be contagious!”

“Nothing to worry about, sorry ass: idiots can’t catch colds!”

“Shut up!” Seto roared at Aomine, who on the contrary just smirked at him.

“Or what? You gonna shot me like Tetsu? I don’t think Makoto would cry for me like he did a while ago, though.”

Shintarou watched Seto’s hands clenching in fists, but he had to move them when Kise had another spasm and started throwing up again, this time on his own and all thanks to the liquor Aomine had given him.

“There’s nobody left to cry for you, Daiki.” Seto spitted, cold, “The last one chose to drown just today.”

The blow was low and Aomine’s face darkened for a second, but immediately after he was smiling cheekily once more as Wakamatsu's “Oh fuck, again!” filled the room.

Seto turned with a growl toward Wakamatsu, who was staring at Kise in disgust, and he was so filled with rage it actually looked like a good idea, the one he would have never thought of had he been a bit more lucid.

“Well then, since Aomine has no problems dealing with poor ill people,” he hissed, “I’m sure he’ll have fun healing this heartbroken vomiting princess.”

“What?!” Daiki’s face was outraged, Wakamatsu was smirking.

Seto called for Hara’s help and they exchanged Aomine’s and Wakamatsu’s places.

 

***

 

“I can’t believe how dumb you can be sometimes.” Wakamatsu shrugged, searching the cell for Aomine’s secret reserve of rum, with Sakurai’s “sorry” help.

Daiki grunted something in answer, his wrists once more chained to the bars of his new cell, but this time to the grate of the entrance, not to a lateral one, so that he was giving his back to the corridor and had Kise’s cell to his right.

Midorima helped his patient against the bars — the closest he could to Aomine — when he was finally done emptying his stomach and then he got up to reach for the door where Furuhashi was waiting for him. Akashi had put up one hell of a fight and there were a lot of wounded among the pirates.

Midorima was at least satisfied with that and promised himself to make them hurt the most he could as he was forced to heal them, then he left under Kise’s exhausted gaze.

“Feeling better, princess?”

Kise shot Aomine a glare, but didn’t find it in himself to get angry at the other. He was too tired and too empty to be bothered with such a low matter as a nickname. Akashi had just…

He sucked his breath in, closing his eyes as he tried to hold himself together. Of all those who were on that Navy ship, now he was the only one left. The thought was killing him.

“Forget about him.”

His eyes shot open, lucid and furious, as Aomine’s voice struck him as cold and indifferent, just as his face when he finally found it. Daiki was looking at the ceiling, wrists cuffed just above his head, as if nothing ever happened.

“I don’t turn my back on my friends that easily.” Kise spat, furious with the man but also with himself. Just because the pirate had been all about how precious ‘Tetsu’ were he had ended up unconsciously trusting him a bit, because that kind of friendship was the same he had with Akashi — not always visible but real, honest and trustworthy —, but he should have known better. Pirates were the lowest, after all. “You disgust me.”

It was a blurred motion from Ryouta’s point of view. He barely registered the way Aomine’s body slipped downward, before he felt something heavy pushing at the back of his neck and slamming his face against the grate. His throat was pressed against one of the vertical bars and his breath was suddenly cut.

He gasped for air, eyes wide as he realized Aomine was a fucking animal who had managed to pin himself against the grate with a foot and to slip the other between the grate, efficiently managing to then bring his calf behind Kise’s neck. He had his back against the floor and his hands locked, but he was still so close to strangle Ryouta. The blond man’s heart started beating like crazy as his eyes registered the serious expression on the other’s face.

Daiki strained his neck to lift his head as much as he could.

“Listen here, princess. You can mourn your friend all you want or you can fucking accept he’s dead and start thinking with your own head to a way to escape this hellhole before his death becomes another one of all those meaningless ones that happen here. You got me?” 

Kise stopped his struggling abruptly, suddenly surprised at the intensity in Aomine’s eyes. The man’s irises were deep blue, filled with dark secrets that for a moment made Ryouta tremble, but they were also, somewhere in deep, caring. And they, too, were mourning.

Daiki let him go slowly, giving him time to wrap his hands around the bars not to fall to a side and then grunted.

His foot was _stuck_ in the grate.

Kise stared at it for a long time, completely tuning out all the curses from Aomine and Wakamatsu’s teasing comments, and then he thought. Was he really going to be less reliable than that idiot? Akashi would have killed him, if so.

He took a deep sigh before helping Daiki’s foot out of pity, then he turned with his back to the other man. He let his head fall backward and his eyes went almost unconsciously to the opened manhole. It was night and no light came in from there, but Kise could feel it calling him, promising that freedom he had been denied for so long. He closed his eyes to imagine something, anything, from before his capture, but he ended up opening them again.

No fantasy could help him ease the pain of being a captive and all of his memories were filled with voices and faces he would have never seen again.

The manhole let it the nightly breeze and filled his nose with the scent of sea and a sweet promise of _everything_.

 

***

 

Aomine knew he hadn’t realized. Nobody ever did, not at first and surely not after being with the fucking Navy for years. 

That blonde dog had been half delirious almost the whole time, but since the very moment he had woken up, Aomine had known. The way he gazed at the sky outside the manhole, the way he had fought his own injuries, how he had mustered his willpower just to get to have a part in the escape plan…

Daiki had been a lot like that, too, before he ran from home and he too, at first, was content being a sailor. But for those like them ‘content’ became not enough, sooner or later; they were made for more, they craved a level of freedom that transcended the laws, they needed adventures and fights and adrenaline to keep their hearts pumping and their bodies moving. Rules were chains they couldn’t have respected even if they wanted, because they were just not made to be restrained.

Kise may have not realized that, but Aomine had.

Kise was not born to be a soldier.

 

***

 

_Warm._

Akashi felt it engulfing him like a nest of blankets, one of those his mother used to build up when his father was away in a long trip. She would send the personnel away and lock the door and they would jump on the bed and laugh, pretending her room was their whole world and that one day Seijuro wouldn’t have to leave too. He was eight back then, but the one who left first had been her, two years later, because of syphilis.

_So warm._

It was softer this time, though, and yet firmer. Wet. Like having a hot bath, but Akashi felt like he could barely remember the last time he had one. First the sailing and then the captivity, the last time he had been with Kise and had felt annoyed at the blond’s blubbering.

_Kise._

Akashi’s eyes shot open, but he froze when his brain couldn’t give a meaning to what his eyes were seeing. 

There was water. That was all. Water everywhere. He stared up ahead of himself and only saw water, with no end. It was pitchy black yet somehow he could see and it was weird because rationally he knew he shouldn’t have. 

He stiffened, but when he opened his mouth no air came out. It was already filled with water, but so were his nose, his throat and, _he knew it_ , his lungs. He tried to breath and water moved inside and outside him. He didn’t feel like drowning, he felt alright. He tried to gulp some water down at it burned his eyes for it was salted, just as salted as the ocean.

He was probably dead.

Slowly, careful not to break whatever spell was that, he tried to turn his head to a side and he realized the hard thing he felt against his back was actually a stone. A stone he was laying on.

_What?_

Akashi had never been one to let sudden situations confuse him, but this one went quite out of his range of experience. When he tried to push himself to a sitting position, his left shoulder filled him with pain and he screamed out, or at least tried to.

A sudden bubbling sound made him freeze and snapped his eyes open once more. 

His right hand was holding the opposite shoulder and he was on his right side, but the sound was at his back now. It had slowed down and seemed a bit fainter, but Akashi didn’t really feel like letting his guard down when he had yet to understand what the hell was happening.

_Calm down. Face one problem at time. Survive._

He closed his eyes again and focused only on his hearing for as cushioned as it could be. The sound resumed for a second, seemed to move downward and then to raise again as it came closer. Seijuro needed all of his willpower not to turn immediately, but he stood motionless trying to identify whatever it was by the noise.

_A fish?_ It seemed probable if he was really at the bottom of the ocean. But it seemed bigger, somehow.

Something crawled around his arm and he snapped.

He rolled, abandoning any thought about the useless arm to focus on the other one and his legs to pin the fish down, and when his eyes focused on the creature he had grabbed he froze.

Big round eyes stared at him in a helpless blank way. A young man’s torso was under his waist, so pale it seemed translucent in the water, and a fan of sky blue locks opened at the left side of his head before being locked in a seaweed loose tie at nape level. Instead of ears, the creature had some kind of fins or grills opening like frog’s hands at the side of his face, moving gently. There were some scales here and there on his shoulders and subtle silver fins ran down his elbows toward his wrists. He had a hand palm up beside his face so Akashi could see his fingers were webbed and ended with pointed nails that looked more like claws.

Not to mention, under Akashi’s body, he didn’t have legs. Seijuro could feel a long fish-like tail slowly moving up and down. He could see the point at his waist where skin turned into white and silver scales.

Akashi blinked, because if he thought Tetsuya was a Merman then he was surely dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to dedicate this chapter to a special someone.
> 
> And yes, Akashi drowns twice, Eve, I couldn't help it, it happened on its own!


	4. Part IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akashi drowns. _Again_.

 

**Through Gold and Iron Chains**

**Part IV**

 

“We’re late on schedule, Hanamiya! If we want to board that fucking ship, we need to leave now!”

“There’s no wind also. We’ll have to use the oarsmen staring right now, and trust me that it will be a big fucking problem to have them exhausted when there will be a ton of Navy ships on our trails to catch us and get their bloody cannons back.”

“We can’t waste any more time, Hanamiya. It’s been three days already, you too know that there’s no damn way they’re still alive.”

Hanamiya’s figure was hunched over the dining table in his rooms, his fist clenched on the handkerchief that was Kuroko’s and lips pulled into a grimace. He was almost trembling in rage, all his muscles tense, and when he suddenly snapped and slammed an open hand on the table everybody in the room — only Seto, Hara and Furuhashi — flinched.

“We’re leaving.” Hanamiya’s words were a growl, so low yet so terrifying nobody dared to say anything, “Prepare the prisoners _now_. They’ll have to take back all the time that damn Akashi made us waste.”

“We’re talking about three days. At that rate, we will lose at least half of them.” Seto said, frowning at the thought of how many peoples from their new boarding they would have had to catch alive.

Hanamiya’s sharp turn made him forget his annoyance as those eyes burned him to ashes.

“I don’t give _a fuck_.” 

He was _mad_ , that was all Seto could think of his captain as the hiss made him tremble. Gulping once, he nodded but as he and the other three moved to leave, Hanamiya called Hara. Seto saw how the other jerked.

“Put that blond bitch in the first row.” Hanamiya was staring in fury at the handkerchief in his fist, but his eyes seemed to be seeing something completely different.

 

***

 

Midorima would have never imagined he would have seen the day he thought of Aomine as _useful_ , yet here he was, listening to Kise’s heartbeat and finding it strong and slightly — but healthily — accelerated as the man was busy quarreling with the blue-haired prisoner on the other side of the grate.

Daiki had smug grin on his lips while Ryouta was enraged at least, but that only proved just how much the latter had recovered. He was still weak, especially with how little they had been given to eat and drink, but he was almost completely healed. At first Midorima had thought his stupidity was a consequence of the hit to his head, but now he knew the man was just that much of an idiot and he had resigned to the fact that no medicine in the world could change that.

Sighing, he let the other’s shirt fall back to cover his chest and stomach again and lifted his eyes to the pair of idiots, blinking at the level of idiocy they could reach together.

“I do train a lot, I’ll let you know!” Kise was hissing, “I’ve been personally appointed to Akashicchi’s ship by the Emperor himself!”

“Uh-uh, I feel sorry for the navy then,” Daiki taunted, pointing with his chin at Kise’s trunk, “because those pathetic bumps are not worthy being called _abs_.”

Midorima almost missed the times when his patient was too weak to turn everything into a cock-fight. At least the deep purple shade Kise’s face had now could be counted as a proof of how well his hematic circulation worked.

“ _Listen here, you brutish imbecile_ , I-!”

“Get up, trash!” Midorima froze, dread running down his spine as the angry voice of Seto accompanied the thud of his feet landing heavily on the floor, from the manhole. When he turned, Hara and Furuhashi as well as another five men were there. “Time to work!”

Kise grabbed a bar but Shintarou was fast enough to push his shoulder down and stop him from jumping on his feet and at the first pirate’s throat he could get his hands on.

Hara opened the door to Aomine’s cell and he and Furuhashi forced him to move, but Seto opened theirs.

Shintarou shot up on his feet, but the other man pushed him to a side to grab Kise’s fringe with a hand and force him face down on the floor as with the other he twisted one of the soldier’s arms behind his back and slipped a cuff around his wrist.

“Wait, he’s not hea-…!”

“Shut the fuck up, doctor.” Seto glared at him and Midorima cursed when someone sneaked up on him from behind and torched his arms too, “It won’t matter in a couple of days, anyway.”

“Son of a bitch!” Kise hissed as he was pulled on his feet and the wrist Seto had already chained was locked together with the other in front of his stomach.

He earned a knee in the guts for his words and he hissed, but the pirate kept him on his feet.

“Listen here, _slut_.” he growled, “We’re three days behind the schedule and you all won’t stop oaring ‘till when we’ll have taken back all the disadvantage, so you better shut your mouth and spare your breath if you don’t want to end up like that idiotic friend of yours.”

Kise only glared at him in return, and the man was on the verge of punching him when he heard a snicker from outside the cell.

“Let me guess,” Aomine grinned superiorly in Seto’s direction, “Hanamiya is furious and took it out on you all, so on turn you’re taking it out on us. At least tell me that you manage not to shit your pants, this time.”

Midorima was frozen in his captor hands, but his eyes ran through the three men and the tension rising there. Luckily, it lasted only a few seconds before other men resumed shouting orders and Seto twitched his tongue.

“Take them down.” he hissed shoving Kise roughly to another pirate, “This one goes in the first row, Hanamiya’s orders.”

Kise didn’t know exactly what those words implied, but as he stumbled out of his cell he saw Aomine’s eyes widening for a fraction of second and he _knew_ it meant something bad.

 

***

 

Akashi stared because, really, what else could he do? A little silvery fish darted before his eyes and he looked at it as it swam away before bringing his eyes back to his main interest.

Kuroko, alias a merman.

Akashi was sitting on a quite big stone, _at the bottom of the sea_ , wondering how in hell he could be still alive despite having been underwater for…how long was it again?, but Tetsuya had been busy swimming here and there, his webbed hands rummaging through seaweeds and mire, searching, as his long hair waved lazily above his head and his tail occasionally snapped to make him move, so he hadn’t received any answer. 

Seijuro was quite fascinated by that tail, indeed. Once more, he found himself staring at the white scales, some scattered also on the man’s torso and back, and the veil-like end draping itself in the water. It was honestly mesmerizing, like precious silk shining lazily in the moonlight.

Remembering how they had ended there was still a weird experience.

After finding out his assailant was none other than a merman version of Kuroko Tetsuya, Akashi had stood frozen, staring at the creature under him, and instinctively he had gaped. He had immediately brought his healthy hand to his mouth — letting go of Kuroko’s neck —, trying to prevent water from entering, but then he had realized it was already in. His mouth, throat, _lungs_ , they had all been already filled with water. Yet he was…breathing?, he wasn’t sure he could say that, but surely he wasn’t drowning. He didn’t even feel in the slightest out of breath, despite being, actually, completely air-deprived.

In his gesture, he had let Tetsuya go and the merman had pushed himself upward with his trunk, not quite trying to push the human off of him, but just to lay one of his webbed hands on the other’s cheek. 

Seijuro had stared, dumbfounded and quite sure he was already dead or at least delirious and absolutely close to death. The caress on his skin felt…slimy. And cold. Unpleasant, completely unpleasant. He had shivered from that and he was surprised because Kuroko actually smiled lightly at his gesture.

“I’m glad.” he had said, and Akashi had frozen again, for a moment, because his voice sounded different, more…appalling. Then he had realized the other was actually speaking underwater. Well, he was breathing underwater so he shouldn’t be concerned. He was going to die, for sure. “I thought I had been too late.” He only hoped Ryouta wouldn’t do anything stupid.

Kuroko had tilted his head to a side, as if waiting for something, but when Akashi had stood silent he had huffed and let his hand fall. Seijuro had stood, looking at him, letting everything sunk in as they had both apparently done.

When he had lifted his eyes, he had seen the sun through the water surface, so many meters higher. It was but a trembling light, to be honest, and it painted the sea in a deep shade of sickish green. Ropes caressed the water here and there as the oval frames of ships ran its surface, busily moving in every sense and direction, above his head.

 _Beautiful…_ The thought had invaded his mind too soon for him to chase it away and it was so powerful, the picture so vivid and perfect and weird that he immediately _knew_ it couldn’t be all an illusion. Not even he could have imagined such a contorted scenery. Slowly, he had lowered his gaze on Tetsuya, still meekly under him despite the growing restlessness of his tail.

“You’re a merman.” he had said because for absurd as it was, that had been the only thing his mind could grasp in that moment. Not even the fact that he could talk underwater the same way he could in plain air had managed to drift his mind away from the depths of Kuroko’s shining eyes.

“Yes.” had been the useless answer. Akashi would have sighed if only he thought he could, but instead he had let out a groan and resumed his staring.

“What happened?” he had demanded, the only usable hand he had running back to Tetsuya’s throat, pinning him against the stone surface. Kuroko had grunted something, his hand instinctively laying against the rock, palm upward, and his nails looked so much like claws…

“Hanamiya made me drop my medallion.” Akashi had snapped out of his thoughts when Tetsuya had talked again, memories flooding his mind far more violently than how water itself had done with his lungs, “We need to find it. Soon.”

Akashi had frowned and Kuroko had elaborated. That they needed the medallion, but he had had to bring them both out of the port because Hanamiya was searching for their bodies desperately; that for two days Akashi had been completely out and Kuroko had had to fed him with the same seaweed he had used on his wound — _“You made so many weird faces every time I forced you to swallow it. It was quite funny, Akashi-kun.”_ —; and how, in his latest excursion to the port, Kuroko had found out Hanamiya’s ship had already left. They both had known what it meant.

And here they were, more or less.

Kuroko’s tail flickered in an annoyed gesture as the merman let another stone fall back and turned his head from side to side. The three cuts at the sides of his neck, _gills_ , looked like grayish pulsing wounds and his ears had been replaced by turquoise crests just a shade duller than his long teal hair. He still looked a lot like his human form, but there was no way to deny that now he was all but unnoticeable. His lack of presence had completely disappeared and now he was…plainly beautiful, in a sense. Akashi congratulated himself for the perfect choice of words.

It wasn’t like he had accepted everything that he had been told without second thought, but he had had to admit that if he had been told just a week before that in seven days he would be breathing underwater he wouldn’t have believed it any more than if he was told that merfolk existed. He didn’t exactly trusted Kuroko also, but he couldn’t deny that the other had saved his life by pushing him out of the line of Hanamiya’s fire and that the arm hanging from his neck, tied with _disgusting_ seaweed, had indeed been treated. Not to mention, without Tetsuya he had no way to find Kise.

 _I have no other choice._ Once more, Akashi clenched his fist and bit his tongue, furious with his own helplessness, and his stare on Kuroko turned into a glare for a second, before going back to a frowned questioning gaze.

“Why don’t we simply go to your friends?” he asked, impatient, “They should recognize you even without it, after all. And there’s no way to tell where that medallion went.”

“The currents inside the port aren’t that many nor that strong.” Kuroko retorted, still searching, “And we can’t.”

“How come?” Akashi was pleased to discover that he could click his tongue even with his mouth filled with water. Kuroko seemed to not appreciate, as he turned to blankly glare at him. Akashi held his eyes and the merman ended up sighing.

“The medallion is a key.” he admitted, “Without it, my friends’ ship is just as useless as any other one.”

Akashi frowned, but then sighed. Difficultly, he lifted from the rock Tetsuya had laid him on when they had reached the port and tentatively swam toward one of the poles holding up a wharf. Tetsuya had had difficulties swimming so close to the ropes tying the poles together, his tail risking getting stuck, so Akashi figured he would be more useful checking there. It also seemed close enough to the point where Hanamiya’s ship had been anchored.

He could feel Kuroko’s eyes on his back, but he ignored them.

He had a lot of questions more, but had realized they wouldn’t be answered anytime soon, as long as the medallion was still lost, and he was lucid enough to understand why Tetsuya wanted nothing more than stop wasting time.

If the ship had left with a three days delay, it was only a matter of time before the oarsmen were put at use, if they weren’t already, and the crew must have been furious and out for blood from their prisoners. Akashi was half sure Hanamiya hated him enough to throw Kise at the oars even if he wasn’t healed yet. The other half was terrified Makoto may have already shot him, in a fit of rage.

“They’ll be okay.” He turned, and through the net of poles and ropes he saw Kuroko’s ethereal form staring back at him with fierce hope. “I am sure they will.”

“Kise is not that strong.” Akashi retorted, even if it pained him to admit that. 

Kise was a good man, with a great heart, but not the greatest of soldiers, and not because of a lack of skills — he had plenty of those — or of his difficulties in respecting proper discipline. He was easy against his own feelings, desperate to grab something that seemed to be always just one step ahead of him, and most of all, he _cared_. Even when he shouldn’t have, even when it was difficult, he always ended up attached and that always opened up weakness on his otherwise strong defense. He grew fond and let himself be defeated by that fondness: just as he had fought for Akashi when they were together, he would mourn now that he would thought of him as dead. 

For as much as Seijuro knew — and he knew, because Kise never shut the heck up —, all of his friends were on the ship that Hanamiya had sunk, with the exception of a swordsman teacher named Kasamatsu, who lived in the capital, and his family had long since turned their backs on him when he chose to help one of his sisters out of an horrible marriage that had left her scarred in her face. She had taken her life shortly after he had enrolled in the Navy to pay for both their lives. By the time they had been taken prisoners, Akashi himself had been the only one left for him.

Ryouta had never faced solitude well.

“He may not be strong,” Akashi blinked, his mind called back to reality by Kuroko’s soft voice and another slimy-fingertips caress on his armpit. Tetsuya looked sure of his words, “but Aomine-kun _is_.”

 

***

 

It took little time for the prisoners to be tied to their oars. The pirates were nervous, furious, and everybody could see that angering them in any way was the worst possible scenery. 

Still, Kise fought back. It had never been in his nature to bow, even less to violence, and giving up was never in his options. He pulled and wriggled, hissing and cursing as the his captor tried to control and push him toward the row where Aomine had already been tied to.

At a certain point, he even managed to shift to a side and, kicking the man in the ankles, to make his jailer fall down the stairs with a painful wail. He got caught back by Seto immediately after and slammed down the steps, his back and side hitting the wood corners painfully, but he wouldn’t regret it.

“You damn whore!” Seto hissed, ripping a whip out of Hara’s hands before bowing and grabbing Kise by his hair. The prisoner kicked and cursed, but Furuhashi grabbed one of his chained arms and in two they dragged him to Aomine’s side. “I swear to all the gods, bitch:” Kise was tied to the oar, but Seto never let go of his grip, “ _here_ is where you die, and by my hand.”

Ryouta spitted on on his cheek. 

“Go fuck yourself.” he hissed, before opening into a sneering smile, “It’s not like you’ll ever get a go at me, anyway.”

Kise’s ear rang and his whole head spun when Seto backhanded him in the face, but, oh, it was worth it. He licked the blood at the corner of his mouth ignoring its metallic taste and turned his head again to hold Seto’s blazing glare.

“If this is the best you can do, I surely will die here, but of old age, _princess._ ” It felt great to retort the usual term to the pirate and Kise was ready for another blow, for as many as he would get for his boldness, but none came.

Before Seto could strike again, Hanamiya had laid a hand on his armpit, stopping him. He was looking down at Kise with a cold gaze that wouldn’t have tricked a kid: his fury still crept through his tense pose, the bloodshot eyes and the sneer of the mouth. Whatever reason he was there for, it was surely connected with Akashi.

Kise’s fists clenched at the thought.

He glared at Hanamiya trying to take in every single detail of him, to burn every minimal detail at the back of his mind, so that he will never forget the face of the man who killed Akashi. So that when the chance came — and it would, for sure —, he wouldn’t let his friend’s killer go unpunished.

Hanamiya was staring at him too, looking for something he clearly didn’t find, but at a certain point he turned to the rest of the crew.

“Take your places!” he shouted and half the men downstairs scrambled back on the deck, leaving only five to survey the prisoners. A red-haired man on the stairs, Furuhashi at the drum to give the rhythm, Hara and Seto with whips checking the oars in the middle section and the end closer to the stairs of the boat. Hanamiya himself stood in between the rows at the opposite end, to Kise’s side, in between him and the row with Murasakibara and Midorima. Only then, Ryouta noticed his whip, just before the captain made it crack loudly in the air before slamming it against the floor. “Move!”

Kise tugged at his restrains, but he violent push to his side made him turn, eyes sharpened in betrayal.

“Don’t.” Aomine warned, his navy eyes staring straight ahead of him as he pushed his whole weight against the oar to make it move, “Now it’s not the time, you’ll only get yourself whipped and killed.”

“You…!”

“Ryouta!” Kise jerked at the mention of his first name, just how Akashi used to call him but in a deeper voice, too rough to even resemble the refined smoothness of Seijuro, “Not. Now.”

Kise bit his tongue, flashbacks overlapping in his mind, and his hands clenched on the oar, following its movements without really contributing to the work Aomine alone was taking care of.

 _Akashicchi._ , his grip became deadly, _What would you do, now?!_

Hanamiya cracked the whip just beside his ear and he jerked, but bit his tongue to bleeding and stood completely silent.

Aomine grunted at his side, pulling the oar back on his own.

Midorima hissed when Makoto hit him, his whip sliding vertically down the slight furrow of his spine, ripping his shirt open and staining the rip flaps in red with a single blow. Kise jerked at the sight, but another pushed prevented him from trying to jump on his feet when he saw the doctor leaning slightly on the oar, as if to escape the pain or to catch his breath.

“Not now.” Aomine repeated, but his voice was even darker now, his brows furrowed and his mouth pulled into a thin line. His fury, Kise realized, must have been terrifying. “ _Soon._ ”

 _Soon._ Never a word had given him so much strength.

Ryouta bit his lip on Midorima’s low curses — was he really reciting anthems?!, wasn’t he a doctor?! —, but held tightly on the oar and pushed his weight on it to help Aomine.

 

***

 

Akashi had heard quite some stories about merfolk people. That their voices were mesmerizing, that they killed sailors, that their songs held the ultimate knowledge and every secret of that world and the next one, that their _kiss_ could save a man from drowning for the rest of his life. But never, not once, he had heard of them actually saving people.

His lips tingled every time he thought of it, the fact that Tetsuya had kissed him to save him from drowning, blessing him with the gift of breathing underwater. It seemed so weird for the other to share such a precious gift, but at the same time, somehow, he couldn’t stop the thought that…yeah, that seemed like something the little Kuroko, ship’s boy who chose captivity over abandoning his friends, could do.

Mire was sticking to his skin — unbelievably smooth for someone who’d been underwater for three days and more — and clothes, staining them in a greenish-grayish color, and it was cold and the sun had reached its peak and was burning his skin and his arm hurt _so much_ he felt like he was boiling inside, but he kept on digging, bare hands, in the dirty sea bed. Sometimes he could see some red arabesque wrapping itself in the salted water before vanishing, like smoke from a pipe, and he got distracted to watch it and wonder if it would work on Tetsuya as it did with sharks.

He was morbidly interested in how Kuroko fed himself, but he was too dizzy, worried and in a hurry to be bothered by his own creepiness.

He clenched and opened his good hand a couple of times, trying to shake the fog from his mind by concentrating on the muscles, but the arm hanging from his neck occupied far more of his attention and it filled his brain with a dull pain that seemed to be anesthetizing him a bit more by the minute. He bit his tongue, but shook his head and looked around, his eyes scanning the area deeper under the pier, where sun didn’t get and it was quite dark.

 _It’s not like I have much of a choice._ , he told himself, briefly turning to look at Kuroko, swimming nervously all around the place, searching in the open water, careful of the anchors and anything else he could get stuck in. Sighing, Akashi pushed with his feet against the rock he had been kneeling on and tentatively, as he could with a single arm, swam deeper in the dark waters.

He had to hold his breath, not because of the water but because of the pain his shoulder blade shot to his brain as soon as it was moved, but he ignored it and went on.

He slipped through ropes, his free hand touching the ground carefully, searching for the carved metallic surface of the jewel, as his mind was filled with Kise’s face. Then Midorima’s, Aomine’s, Murasakibara’s. Who knew what they could be going through in that very moment, who knew if they were even still _alive_.

Akashi bit his tongue as his hand rummaged faster, almost anxiously.

Kise had not been the only one to have nobody there for him. Akashi’s mother had died when he was child, he was the only heir of his family and his father, a general, had always been cold and distant. He had been the one to enroll his son in the Navy and despite all the efforts Seijuro had made to be acknowledged by the man had been vain. Perfection was just the norm for their family, after all; not something to reward.

He threw a rock out of his way.

When Kise had come around, it had been like an whole zoo breaking into a library. Akashi had resented him, honestly, for his easygoing attitude, but time had revealed to him just how reliable the other could be. Reliable and loyal. He had been the only one Seijuro had ever thought of as a companion, and then a friend. The only other person he had held close, was Emperor Nijimura, as they had grown up together, but that was before the previous Emperor died of an illness heirless and the Nijimura family had risen to take the throne, as a secondary branch of the royal family. Even with Shuuzou, Akashi had never had the closeness Kise had demanded and taken, almost by force, with a bright smile and a sticky attitude. If Ryouta were to die…

Akashi shook his head and slammed — tried to, as the water muffled his movement — his fist down against the rocks, eyes flaring with determination.

He wouldn’t let Kise die, that was it. He was always right, he always won, he would take Ryouta out of there.

He lifted his burning eyes, the left one itching slightly — not quite painfully, but definitely not pleasantly either —, and a glim froze him for a second.

It took a while for a ray of sun to be reflected, who knew what by, on the same spot, but when it happened it lit up something for a second.

Akashi pushed himself against the rocks and in a second he was there, above the shining thing, and he stopped.

Kuroko’s medallion stood meekly in its place on a _corpse_ , already quite eaten by fishes and corroded by salted water.

Seijuro swallowed and ripped the jewel away, forcing himself to turn and hurriedly go back to Tetsuya, trying to forget he had already seen that man on Hanamiya’s ship, the day Seto and the others had brought his body out of his cell to throw it overboard.

It was the prisoner who had died of illness just some days before.

 

***

 

_“Shin-chan, Shin-chan, Shin-chan~!”_

_“Shut up! I’m trying to work, here!”_

_“No can do, Shin-chan; I’m here in behalf of the Emperor himself! And his favorite midget, obviously.”_

_Midorima had finally lifted his annoyed glared from the medicine book he had been checking and laid it, just as annoyed as before, on the man whose hands were daring to lay on his table and whose face was all lit up by a huge smile._

_“Takao.” he growled, seeing the man’s ruffled black hair and wondering how in the world he had had the courage to show up in front of the emperor with that bed-head, “This better be important.”_

_“You should stop frowning, Shin-chan, you’ll get early wrinkles.” the man kept on laughing, moving a chair in front of Midorima’s desk to sit there, arms crossed on the backrest and legs spread to the sides of it. Shintarou refused to move his eyes from his face despite the slight warmth creeping up his neck, toward his ears._

_With time, the doctor had learnt how to read the signs in the young navy soldier’s face, so he sighed and closed his book, well aware that he wouldn’t be allowed to do any more work — just as any other time Takao’s ship reached the port of the Royal Palace —._

_“Are you leaving?” he asked simply, his eyes moving to the tea set he had prepared and to the pot filled with water that had already stopped steaming._

_Takao’s smile dropped a bit as he followed his gesture and stared at his long fingers moving, caressing, touching, with those sharp gray eyes of his that could see so far in space, yet not as much in time._

_Midorima had fallen in love, with those eyes._

_Takao moved his crossed arms to the desk and laid his chin on it, but let the other pour the lukewarm water without pointing out what a disgusting tea that would make. He was the one two hours late, after all; not that he could help it._

_Takao was a soldier. He lived on a ship for months each time, just to come back to the solid ground for a couple of days — a week when he was lucky — and then leave again. Midorima had been training as a ship’s surgeon at the beginning, but his skills had brought him notoriety and now he was the court physician. He had never left the palace. It had been by pure coincidence that Takao had helped Kasamatsu to Shintarou’s studio to get treated and it had been just by mistake that they had fallen for each other._

_Because of that and of their gender, they had never had many hopes in their relationship; it was supposed to be just a one-time thing, something to solve the sexual tension that had been growing in between them. They had sex once in summer and Takao had left the following morning. All was done and all was said, it should have ended there._

_It didn’t and Kazunari was back five months later with a scratch on his head that needed to be checked. He left again the following week; came again seven months later, and so on._

_Shintarou had grown used to the aching pain in his chest at moments like that._

_“I’m leaving three days from now, Shin-chan, but it’s not about that.” Takao admitted, yet his voice was different this time. It held an unknown shade that made Shintarou forget his tea and frown once again. Kazunari bit his lower lip, but then his eyes met his lover’s green irises, trying to trap them. “It’s for the plague in Shuutokou region. The Emperor wants you to get there and help the doctors find a cure. I heard the midget pushed a lot for the Royal Emblem to intervene directly.”_

_Midorima barely blinked at that._

_“I see.” he just said, getting up from his table to move to his bed._

_He picked up his sack from under it and opened it up on the mattress to put inside everything he could need. It took a nine days travel by ship to get to the Shuutokou region, so he couldn’t carry anything fresh. He would have to make do with dried herbs and berries._

_“Shin-chan…!”_

_“I already prepared two possible cures.” He couldn’t see it, but the sound of a chair fallen to the ground and the pained yelp that accompanied it let him know that Takao had heard him. “Your description of the symptoms was more than enough for me to track the possible reasons of the illness down to two. I will only have to get there, examine one of the patients myself and then choose which solution is the best.”_ I won’t get ill _, went unsaid, but Kazunari released a breath he had no medical reason to hold, in Midorima’s professional opinion. “Once I’ll be sure it works, I’ll leave it to the local physicians to make more of the medicine and solve the problem. It won’t take more than week, possibly less.”_

_He was putting a book inside his sack when Takao’s hand — so much littler than his that it could have seemed frail if not for the harsh callouses and the pale scars littering them, proofs of all the training and battles they had seen — wrapped gently around his wrist and made him turn his head._

_A kind yet forceful kiss took his lips for a second before Kazunari pulled back to stare at him straight in the eyes._

_“You’ll have to leave tomorrow.” he murmured, clearly sad, and Shintarou knew,_ he knew it so bad _, how much those two wasted days together hurt, but what could they do? Midorima would leave at the next daybreak and Takao would do just the same two days later. Their next meeting, none of them could foresee when it would come. “Do you need help to pack your things?”_

_Shintarou shook his head, mainly because Kazunari was really too much to be real, but then he abandoned his sack for a moment and took in his hands, instead, his lover’s face._

_“It’s nothing to be worried about.” he promised, “I’ll be waiting for you next time you come.”_

_Takao tiptoed to kiss him, deeply this time, and Midorima grabbed his waist and let them both fall on his bed, shoving his sack on the floor with an arm._

_He left the following morning with Takao’s smiling frame waving at him from the pier._

_He was caught by Hanamiya’s ship during his return travel._

_He never saw Takao again._

_Fourty-two months later, ‘the midget’ Kazunari always spoke so sarcastically of was pushed below deck in chains, right under his eyes and with a guy that, for all that’s holy and lucky, even sharing little to nothing in physical appearance, had the same aura of Takao._

_Something clicked and Shintarou just started to act._

 

Now, he took a deep breath, his chest pushing against the wood of the oar he had leaned on. His back was flaming in pain, blood slipping slowly on his skin, but he stubbornly kept his mouth close. When he was sure he could open his lips without betraying his suffering, he muttered a course in a low voice, one of the worst Takao had ever taught to him.

 

_“My grandma was a witch, woooooo~!”_

_“Shut up, Takao.”_

 

If it really worked, he would send the old lady a huge amount of gold as soon as he was back home.

Home. He hadn’t been thinking about that for… Gods, how long had he been on Hanamiya’s ship? A year, probably longer. After the first corpses, he had just started to believe he would one day end up like that, disposed of at the bottom of the sea, nobody knowing about that. Takao probably already thought of him as dead, anyway, so it wouldn’t make much difference to him.

Except that it did. It did make a difference, because Midorima still longed for Kazunari, with his annoying cheerful attitude and big smile, with his goofy face that masked how serious he could be, with the scent of sun and sea that had at least stuck to his skin. The mere thought of blackness devouring all those memories was enough for Shintarou to keep on holding on, kicking and scratching for every chance to change everything.

It was the reason why he helped Akashi to begin with, the sheer determination to escape and the silent promise of freedom that came with it. He still refused to let it sink at the bottom of the ocean with the officer’s body: it was another failure, but he had never been one to quit under any circumstance.

The whip hurt, he wouldn’t deny it, but could it even be compared to pain he had trained himself to every time he watched from afar Kazunari’s ship disappearing at the horizon? Not in a million years.

 

***

 

In normal circumstances, Akashi was not prone to trust anyone with his back. He had taken that leisure with Kise, but only after an year of knowing the blond. He had been raised with the knowledge that the human race was probably the lowest, always ready to turn against itself for the cheapest reasons – money, power, envy –, and thus sleeping in someone else’s arms, completely vulnerable, would have been impossible even to consider for him normally.

Truth was, pain was catching up with his remaining energies quite fast. Kuroko had fed him ironically more than the pirates so he had regained some strength, but Midorima hadn’t been lying – even if aware of the plan – when he had said his shoulder was infected. And now broken, too. 

Honestly, Akashi was trying to hold on, telling himself he would have the time to get treated and rest and heal after Kise was safe too, but it was so hard. After finding the medallion, he and Kuroko were supposed to reach for the merman’s friend’s ship. Easier said than done. At first Seijuro had tried to swim on his own, but with a broken arm and his weakness he had soon had to admit he was only being a burden, slowing them down; then, Kuroko had tried pulling him by the good arm, holding hands like some kind of couple, but it had only strained the human’s shoulder too much, his legs unable to keep up with the speed on a merman’s tail.

So here they were, Tetsuya’s arms around Akashi’s waist as he swam, fast and elegant. Seijuro had felt humiliation building up at being handled like a kid, but hid body had given up on that feeling far earlier than his mind, relaxing in the hold. Somewhere during the travel, the man’s forehead had laid against the creature’s shoulder and his tiredness had won even against the cold and slimy texture of that pale skin. He had drifted to sleep before he could even realize.

He had dreamt of his mother, for the first time in years, but that was about all he could remember.

When he had woken up, Kuroko had moved a hand to his nape to sustain his head as he began rising toward the surface, swimming dangerously close to a vertical wall of pure rock.

Akashi’s hands had found his waist almost unconsciously, searching for something to hold on to as pressure made his head spin a little.

Then, all of a sudden, air.

Akashi breathed suddenly and just as fast he started coughing, his lungs desperate to spill out the water that just a second earlier made no difference for them. He puked salted liquids for what seemed like eternity, his throat pulsing and burning in pain, just like his shoulder, and he did so on Kuroko’s arm, but the merman didn’t seem to care as he massaged his back simply.

When he finally regained his breath, Seijuro looked around only to find himself once more locked up away from sky and sun and whatever. They had emerged into a damn cave. He grunted, but otherwise kept his distaste for himself and simply moved his good arm to Kuroko’s neck, trying to keep on holding onto him as he turned around to scan the place.

Not that there was much to scan: rocks rendered black by the lack of light were everything he could see. They were just immersed into a pool of salted water in the middle of a cave. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Useful.” he commented sarcastically, before turning to face the merman, “And what about now?”

Kuroko rolled his eyes at him — he dared! — but then swam gently, an arm still around Akashi’s waist and the other cleaving the water to let them both through, toward an edge of the natural well they were in. He helped Seijuro pulling himself up on the earth and the man was grateful for that, finally feeling back in his own element, even if he soon started trembling for the cold temperature.

The merman propped himself up to sit on the ground too, his tail still dangling in the water, and his webbed hand came to touch Akashi’s sane shoulder, his eyes scanning the other’s face.

“You’re pale.” he noticed, worry slowly creeping through the cracks of his voice, “Your lips are almost purple.”

Akashi wondered if a sarcastic answer was a good choice for the moment or just a waste of precious time, so he missed the moment to say anything as Tetsuya turned his back to him. He seemed to look for something on the ground for a while, before sighing and slipping a hand underwater again. His face torched into a focused expression and his muscles tensed with effort for a moment before, with a light pop, he pulled something out.

Akashi stared at the long twisted shell as Kuroko gently helped some slimy thing out of it and on his lap, muttering something in the same unknown language Seijuro had heard him use during the fight.

Before he could even think about being disgusted, though, he saw Kuroko bring the shell to his mouth and blow into it like it was a corn of some kind. A loud yet deep note filled the cave and bounced against the walls, endlessly repeating itself for what seemed like a decade. Only when the sound seemed to disappear, Tetsuya picked his new invertebrate friend and placed it back into its home before freeing him in the water again.

When he turned toward him, Akashi only arched a bow skeptically.

“You’ll see.” Kuroko promised and Akashi sighed. Five seconds later, indeed, he saw.

He saw a big figure landing heavily from some kind of whole in the ceiling and then a sword-tip pointed straight in between his eyes.

And he snorted, for he was honestly far too cold and tired for all that shit.

 

***

 

Kise bit his lip, crushed the oar with all the strength he could muster in his grip, steeled himself to hold back, but every time Hanamiya hit Midorima, he felt the urge to lounge at him, biting and scratching and whatever he could do, just to hurt him.

Shintarou was by no mean a pleasant person. He was awkward, snobbish, full of himself just as Akashi, but still he had been the one who helped him and Seijuro, the one risking to protect them, the person who had shielded him with his body. He was a weird person, but with the heart in the right place; and he deserved in no way the pain he was given, surely as a revenge for his help to him and his friend. Kise ached to return the favor, it was a matter of pride.

But Aomine’s knee kept on hitting against his regularly, a silent reminder that it was not the right time yet, that he had to wait some more, for a greater good. One that Ryouta was apparently in no position to be told about.

It was frustrating.

Hanamiya was ruthless with the whip and Kise couldn’t stand it. He didn’t doubt that as soon as the captain was done with punishing the doctor, he would move on to Ryouta himself, but he didn’t care at the moment. Everything seemed just too unfair for him to bother about himself.

 _Akashicchi would have already intervened!_ , he was yelling in his head, eyes darting to Aomine as if they could deliver the message, _He wouldn’t have stood and watched something like this happen without doing anything!_

Aomine glared at him, but his knee hit Kise’s once more. _Be quiet_.

Kise was _never_ quiet.

When Midorima glared at him, Hanamiya backhanded him in the face, sending his glasses flying and ripping a worried sound from Murasakibara. Even Aomine froze for a second, but relaxed slightly when he noticed the lenses were still intact and there was no blood on the doctor’s face. Kise thought he was far too pale and gritted his teeth.

Hanamiya clicked his tongue. “I wonder why do we even bother keeping a doctor,” he hissed, “when you’ll all end up dead anyway.”

“Maybe for your men when a single prisoner is enough to wound ten of them?”

Aomine’s knee slammed against Kise, painfully hard this time, but Ryouta’s face was turned to meet Makoto’s when the man looked for the author of the comment. Steady, cold and cruel; Ryouta was less of a naïve saint than what everybody liked to believe.

“What did you say?” Hanamiya’s tone was dangerous, even the other pirates of his crew realized that for they moved their eyes on the scene discretely, pretending not to.

Kise didn’t budge. “You heard it.” His eyes lingered meaningly, mocking, on the shoulder Hanamiya was moving stiffly, “Akashi alone was enough of a reason for your pathetic excuse of a crew to need a nanny.”

He could barely finish the sentence before Hanamiya brought the whip handle down against his temple, violent. Pain exploded in his brain like a fire, flames  wrapping around every single one of his thoughts turning them to ashes; like an earthquake, making him tremble from inside. He whimpered, his body going limp for a second, like a candle being blown off, but he forced it not to give up out of simple willpower.

“His head…!” Kise wanted to laugh, when he heard Midorima’s voice, but he couldn’t exactly remember how to do it.

He opened his eyes just in time to see Hanamiya turned and violently push Shintarou, who had probably tried to stand up despite the chains holding him to the oar, back. The doctor ended up falling on Murasakibara and the other was fast in grabbing in, muttering a worried “Mido-chin”, but Makoto had already turned again, his eyes blazing with fury as they landed on the still confused blond.

“I’ll kill you first.” he hissed, “As soon as we’ve taken that stupid ship down, I’ll put a bullet in your brain.”

“Fuck you.” 

Akashi would have glared at him, but Kise didn’t really have much energy or brain to come up with a better remark. It still seemed to rile Hanamiya up enough, for he brought his arm to a side and next thing Ryouta new there was a burning line of fire and pain cutting horizontally through his back, making him whimper and lean on the oar.

 

***

 

“Kise!"

Aomine didn’t even manage to let out the first syllabi of the other’s name before the lashes started raining over him. Ryouta’s wrists tied to the oar prevented him from even try to protect himself or running from the hits and his white shirt ripped open in a handful of seconds, leaving him defenseless.

He gritted his teeth, hands clenched, as a voice in his head kept screaming at him. _Don’t butt in, you’ll make it worse!_  

Kise’s whimpers were pathetic, like a brat’s, especially when he was trying so hard to hide them biting his lips and running his nails against the wood of the oar, splinters sticking into his flesh. _Hanamiya hates you just as much as Akashi, he’ll kill Kise if he thinks you care for him too!_

“You damn slut!” _Let him do what he wants, Kise’s strong and he can take it!_

Kise’s back arched and he cried out loud when a lash stretched for the all length of his back, crossing it from his left shoulder to his right lower back. _No, he can’t._

Hanamiya couldn’t stop the whip — not that he would have — when Aomine suddenly ran his chains beside Kise’s and shove an elbow above and over the blond’s head. When the lash came, it was on the tanned side of the pirate.

Daiki didn’t even hiss, lips tight in straight line, but Kise under him whimpered at the pressure of another body against his fresh cuts.

There was a second — an empty, surprised one — in which Daiki only focused on the trembling figure against his chest, the wet feeling of blood dirtying his shirt but also the warmth and the scent, a not so pleasant mix of sweat and dirt and illness that still reminded him of life far too much for him to care. Kise’s blond hair were against his cheek and nose and they were dirty but looked like they’d be soft otherwise; and his skin was pale, deadly so, but pristine, with so little scars it was hard to imagine he was a soldier.

 _No_ , he thought almost by mistake, as the sound of the raising whip mixed with a curse, _there’s one._

It was a bite mark, the shape of teeth clear on the clavicle even if faded by time.

 _Sexy._ He thought, as his flesh ripped open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm taking a liking to this whole drowning-Akashi more than I should, probably, but who cares ^-^
> 
> So... Yes, Akashi kind of drowned but is still alive. Will be explained in another chapter, I promise.  
> Yes, Kuroko is a merman. More explanations to come, really.  
> Yes, Midorima is a ball of cuteness and deserves all the love in this world. You want to know what happened to Takao, don't you?  
> Yes, Kise is a reckless little shit. This is pretty canon, though.  
> Yes, Aomine is grumpy, but in the end he cares. Canon, again.
> 
> I feel accomplished with the new pain I brought you ^-^ Have fun~ ^-^


	5. Part V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically the proof I AM Satan.

 

**Through Gold and Iron Chains**

**Part V**

Kise was trembling. His muscles ached after the hours of oaring, his head was pulsing in tiredness and shock and his old wound didn’t appreciate; but still he strived, hunched under the weight of Aomine’s body, as he walked with the pirate slumped against his side, an arm around his neck, toward the cells.

He had absolutely no idea why Hanamiya had ordered them all back upstairs, but he knew that the man who had suddenly ran downstairs seemed shocked and everybody had tensed after he had said “emergency”. Whatever it was it had brought Hanamiya out of his fury, finally stopping his merciless beating of Daiki, and Kise was grateful for that.

The crew was a collection of blurry figures in activity and Seto and Hara and the others that were helping them didn’t bother much to check who was getting where as they locked the prisoners and hurried up on the deck to check what was happening. Another thing to be grateful for, for it allowed Kise to have Aomine in his same cell and, if nothing more, Midorima in the one right beside theirs.

“Fuck! Be careful, idiot!”

Kise jerked but he managed to roll Aomine on his side just enough to prevent his back from laying on the dirty floor and to allow Midorima to check it through the grate.

“There should be some wine left under the straw there.” the doctor said, “Pour it on the wounds. Generously.”

“That looks bad.” Wakamatsu commented from above Midorima’s head, and for once he didn’t look irked, just slightly pale, “That looks _really_ bad.”

Aomine scoffed at them, even managing to lift his head enough to throw them a smirk.

“Yeah, and guess what? I’ve seen worse.” he bragged, but his cobalt eyes went back on Kise before he could keep the bantering going, “Oi, if you’re going to throw up again, don’t do it on me.”

This time, Ryouta clenched his lips instead of retorting petulantly. Not because he didn’t know what to say, but because he was actually scared he would indeed puke if he were to ever open his mouth, especially when he looked once more at Daiki’s backside.

There was almost no inch of intact skin left. Hanamiya’s beating had been cruel, that was sure, and the wounds were deep and all bleeding, but there were also so many old scars. Aomine’s skin was bronze on his arms and chest and face, but it looked almost faded on his back. When he poured the wine, he almost wished part of the dark shade of the liquid would stick.

Daiki didn’t hiss silently, like Akashi would have. He cursed and yelled and overall complained against Kise for so long and so loudly both Midorima and Wakamatsu just rolled their eyes and decided to get some sleep during the emergency, whatever it was.

“It must be the fucking Navy.” Aomine’s gaze was far away from there, to the manhole to the deck, to the sea and to the sky, “The ship Hanamiya wants to attack may not be well armed, but it surely has great fighters. He cannot afford to try to board it after a confrontation with the Navy. We’ll probably stall here ‘till when the ship passes us. It must be still far away, since nobody is screaming orders. They probably haven’t seen us yet.”

_Navy ship._ Kise’s heart immediately stumbled in his chest, before running on a desperate pace, his eyes wide and his arms frozen while he was still closing the little empty goatskin.  _Home._

He could feel Aomine’s gaze moving on him and he gulped.

_Don’t be stupid. Acting reckless now won’t get you anywhere. What would you even do?, scream for help and hope they’ll hear you?_

But it still felt so bad to know his ticket for freedom was _so close_ , yet completely out of reach. He clenched his teeth.

He didn’t have much to go back to, he knew that. His friends and Akashi were now all dead, his family didn’t want to see him ever again, he had no lover waiting for him. The only person he had left was Kasamatsu Yukio, his old sword teacher that was now working at the Royal Palace. Him, and _revenge._

Kise was a good spirited person. He had never wanted to be a soldier, a simple life as a merchant like his father would have been more than fine for him, but circumstances had decided otherwise. He wasn’t bloodthirsty, wasn’t interested in fighting and what on. But, may Hell break loose, he wouldn’t die before avenging every single one of his friends.

_They will pay._ , he promised himself. They, and Hanamiya more than everybody, would have paid for what they had done to his comrades and Akashi and even Midorima and…

_Aomine_.

The name sounded weird in his mind, like some kind of secret that shouldn’t be said out loud. When he thought about it, he couldn’t help but look for the man’s eyes and he frowned at finding out he was being stared at.

“What?” he asked, quite rudely and suddenly feeling guilty for that. Daiki may not show it, but he was hurt and that was all Ryouta’s fault.

The pirate shrugged.

“Nothing, just riling you up, pretty boy.”

Kise blinked. He couldn’t be serious, right? The smile on the man’s lips said he was, though.

“You’re…! You’re so…!”

“Amazing?” _Smug._

“Annoying.”

Kise rolled his eyes as Aomine laughed at his remark, completely untouched, then he turned. He threw the goatskin under the straw again and curled up on the floor, ignoring Daiki’s chuckles behind him.

At least he had let go of the whole ‘princess’ thing, but he didn’t like the way the pirated said ‘pretty boy’ either. And he wasn’t a _boy_ , they were probably the same age so it was all the more ridiculous, really.

What an annoying man!

***

_What an annoying man!_

Akashi clenched his teeth, striving not to simply jump on the gigantic idiot that _firstly_  had pointed a sword at him and _now_ was hugging the life out of Tetsuya as if Seijuro didn’t even exist at all. And Seijuro _didn’t want an hug_.

Kuroko was staring at him from above his friend’s shoulder with an impassive face, but also glinting eyes that betrayed his amusement. The other annoying … _creature_.

After far too long for his tastes, Akashi faked a cough and _finally_ the man let go of Kuroko to turn and _glare_ — he dared to glare! — at him.

“Who’s that, Kuroko?!” In the darkness, Akashi could gouge out only that the man had reddish hair, quite darker than his, and an angry expression that made his _weird_ forked eyebrows stood out even more than they normally would.

“Kagami-kun, meet Akashi-kun.” Kuroko introduced, quite bored, and then he did it. He wrapped his arms around Kagami’s neck and his tail around the other man’s right leg, who didn’t even react as if it was normal occasion, as if he was _used_ to hold the other. In fact, he moved his arms around Tetsuya as if to carry him bridal style. “He is a new friend."

_But he is more, isn’t it?_ Akashi shook the thought out of his mind as soon as it slipped in. He didn’t care. Tetsuya was useful to his plan and that’s why they had gotten in contact. Nothing more and nothing less. He was a merman, not to mention.

“Good for him.” Kagami grumbled, “Which reminds me…” Akashi blinked when the man slapped Kuroko’s nape quite forcefully, sending strands of his wet hair standing upright, “YOU IDIOT!”

“Kagami-kun, that hurt.” Tetsuya complained in a toneless voice, but the human had already turned and was carrying him somewhere deeper into the cave.

“Good!” he just grunted, but after some steps he stopped and turned to frown at Akashi. “What? You’re not coming?”

Seijuro had a quite venomous answer for the _peasant_ ’s words, but Kuroko probably sensed it because his face popped up from above the other’s shoulder once more. And it was  _creepy_ , not  _cute_ , at all.

“Kagami-kun is one of the friends I talked to you about. He works on the ship that will help us.” he said.

“It will?” Kagami frowned.

“I’m sure it will.” This time, Kuroko glared openly at the other and Akashi, who was approaching them, could see the human _shiver_.

Kagami tried to hide the gesture with a shrug and a bored “Whatever.” but he hurried up after that and Akashi couldn’t help but grin a bit. Kuroko winked at him from above the other’s shoulder.

Then Seijuro’s knees hit the ground and he passed out mid-step.

***

Kise was sure they had been at the oars for more than twenty hours before the emergency had forced Hanamiya to call an halt. He could feel it in his bones and muscles, both far past their limits, and he could feel it in the heaviness of his eyes, yet he couldn’t fall asleep. Every time he closed his eyes, the sweaty hot air of the cells became the warmth of Daiki’s body around him and every breath of wind the jerks as it was torn apart. He kept on jolting awake, heart beating fast in his chest.

After the third time, he groaned and rolled on his back, just to hiss when his own wounds touch the ground and so roll back on the side. He gulped, trying to calm down, and looked at the manhole only to realize it was finally night again. Had been who knew for how long before he noticed.

The stars looked so far he could barely see them in the dark sky.

The deep shade made him turn toward an equally dark color and for a moment he simply stood still staring at Aomine’s face. He had long eyelids, touching his cheeks gently as he slept, and the stubble on his face looked _so bad_ on him. Kise hoped he usually cut his beard because it honestly didn’t suit him one bit. His skin was probably soft under that, it was such a waste to cover it.

Kise had never made a secret of his preference for men. It was the reason his relationship with his parents had been strained even before the whole thing with his sister, but he had never allowed himself to look that way at his enemies. He was loyal, if nothing else.

The problem was that Daiki fell both in the _enemies_ and _allies_ categories, which was bad. 

Kise sat up and held himself on one arm to stare more intently at the pirate.

He was far from his usual preferences. Pale skin and soft hair, a porcelain doll with the strength of a hurricane, that was what he liked. Kasamatsu used to tell him he was “a bastard so full of himself” because Kise basically wanted someone just like him: a pretty yet deadly thing.

So, yeah, _not_ Aomine. Aomine was like the embodiment of ocean itself, his laughter like the rumbling of waves and his muscles the strength of a storm. He wasn’t a doll in any possible way; he was more like a…morningstar, if anything. Grace and prettiness were words that could not apply to him in any way, but Kise would have to be blind not to admit Daiki was _handsome_ , in a very rough and raw way. 

Then the boat swung a little and the light from the outside flickered on Aomine’s face, pointing out the sharp lines and the firmness of every trait. Something also shone a bit, surprisingly.

Kise frowned, but outstretched a hand to touch the other man’s hair carefully — they were dirty and sweaty and freaking oiled, so he barely shrugged them aside with his fingertips, a bit disgusted even if he knew he wasn’t in any better condition —. He freed the ear and stood dumbfounded, when he noticed for the first time.

Aomine had _a lot_ of earrings. They covered almost the whole shell of the ear, some in the shape of rings and others like little stones all on the shades of blue, and there was one even on the piece of cartilage that protruded from the point where the ear connected to the cheek. They were…amazing. And yes, _they_ suited him.

“Like what you see, pretty boy?”

Kise didn’t jerk. Really, he didn’t, because he was too busy staring at the jewels to bother reacting to the sudden voice that sent his heart to his throat. 

“Do they hurt?” he asked instead and then he realized his fingers were still hovering slightly above the other’s ear. He forced his hand into a fist and retreated it, but the temptation to touch was still so strong he had to move his eyes not to fall to it.

Aomine was giving him an arched brow.

“You think with my back in this condition I car about some little holes?”

That made sense, and suddenly Kise was guilty again. How many times he had been told to hold back and wait?, why couldn’t he do it? Both Kasamatsu and Akashi always told him he was too impulsive, but had he ever listened? Obviously not. Around half the troubles in his life had happened because he couldn’t _wait_.

“I…” he hesitated, unsure, but in the cell and in the night’s embrace it was too easy to forget the sidings, so he lowered his head humbly, “I’m sorry. It was all my fault, I…”

“Oh, gods, quit it!” Aomine was rolling his eyes, _he was rolling his eyes at Ryouta’s heartfelt apology!_ , and then frowned at him, “What are you, Ryou’s handsome brother? It’s not the first time and it sure as hell won’t be the last.” And then he grinned, the annoying way he did. “I got some pretty thick skin, ya’ know? Barely felt anything at all.”

Kise hid his face behind a hand, striving not to focus simply on the _handsome_ he had just received, and he shook his head before shooting the other a disbelieving look.

“You are so… _cocky._ ” he stated, because, really, what else could he say? That man was unbelievable.

“Whenever you want, pretty boy.” Aomine grinned and, really, that grin was starting to irk Kise quite deeply now. “And they don’t.”

_Uh?_ “Uh?”

Aomine rolled his eyes, well aware that Kise had completely forgotten where they had started from, but then he lifted a hand and pulled at his visible earlobe, straining the holes a bit and making the jewels tingle gently.

“Hurt.” he reminded, “They don’t. They barely stung a bit when I got them, but nothing too bad.”

_Right_., Kise told himself. The earrings. That was what he was interested in. And he was, really; he had just gotten distracted for a bit.

“I see.” he muttered, his eyes now once more captivated by the sight of that human masterpiece. The earrings seemed so captivating, right now. “Do they have a meaning?”

“Yeah, that I’m alive and handsome.”

Kise refused to look at the man’s face. He _knew_ Aomine was grinning again.

“Don’t forget modest, please.” he still shot back, because letting Aomine go with one cocky statement had been enough for the next decade.

Again, Daiki didn’t take it badly. On the contrary, he started to laugh, loudly enough to draw a growl from a sleeping Wakamatsu, who usually wouldn’t hear cannons shooting.

“Uh uh, pretty boy’s got some sharp claws!” He looked thrilled, Kise could only think that when he finally looked at Aomine’s face again. Finally the man, let the grin go to shrug, “But nope, no hard feelings behind them. I just saw them and thought they looked cool. A friend of mine told me to forget it and not even dare to think about getting one so I got three in one go just to piss her off.” And just like that, the grin was back, “She wouldn’t talk to me for a week after that, but in the end she had to admit they looked good on me.”

“A… girl?” Kise blinked, more surprised than anything. Aomine simply didn’t look like one…who’d be good with girls. He was too rude and rough, come on!

Aomine looked at him impassively.

“No, a goat. Yes, idiot, a _girl._ ” He rolled his eyes, but then, abruptly, stopped and stared at him as if deep in thoughts. Which couldn’t be a good thing because Kise wasn’t sure Aomine could think at all. Another grin and Ryouta grimaced. “Oh, right, you’re from the Navy! Want me to explain to you what a girl is? Bet you haven’t seen one in so long you’ve forgotten they do exist.”

“I DO KNOW WHAT A GIRL IS, YOU ASSHOLE!”

A grunt from Midorima made Kise shut him immediately, even if still fuming, especially because Aomine’s eyes were laughing at him.

“Uh uh, careful with that mouth of yours.” the pirate whispered, faking camaraderie, “Too much vulgarity will stain your pretty boy reputation."

Kise had a lot of insults ready on his tongue tip, but Wakamatsu rolled on a side and he bit it to prevent the discussion from escalating. He would have never expected so much from himself, but for once he’d apparently have to be the mature one.

“Whatever.” he grunted then, turning his head to a side in offense for a moment. But he was curious, deadly so, and even if he knew he shouldn’t have, he peeked on Aomine once more. “Was she…your…uh…?”

This time, it was Daiki who yelled.

“WHAT? Satsuki?! Hell, no!” he looked so honestly terrified at the thought Kise had to laugh at him, “We’d been together since…ever! She was basically my sister, that’d have been disgusting!”

_Wait… Was?_

Aomine could read realization in Kise’s face and he sighed. It wasn’t a secret anyway, so he just shrugged.

“She died.” He told himself it didn’t hurt, those words didn’t hurt, the memories running through his brain didn’t hurt. “Got herself trapped while helping me escape when the Navy caught me and Hanamiya’s brother. She jumped off a cliff to avoid capture.” Bullshit, it hurt, and he laughed once more, but bitterly this time, as he absentmindedly caressed the ‘P’ that have been carved on his arm during those days of prison. “That stupid stubborn woman.”

There was a yell on the deck, someone calling for the captain, but Kise paid it no mind. He couldn’t, really, not when he was staring at Aomine’s melancholic face.

“I’m sorry,” he said, uncertain and his free hand went to lay on his own nape instinctively, “I didn’t know.”

Aomine looked at him weirdly, as if surprised, before shrugging once more. And really, Kise wondered how he could with that back of his.

“Changes little, don’t you think?” he said and his voice was steady once more, almost fond as he moved his eyes on something in front of him, who knew what. “I haven’t talked about her in… ages, probably.” he admitted with an half grimace, “That wine doctor had must be hitting me harder than I’d thought. Well, whatever. She was one hell of a woman with one hell of a temper too. I’ve never known anybody who could punch me as hard as her."

“I bet you deserved it.” Kise couldn’t help himself, but luckily Aomine only grinned at the comment.

“Every single time.” he admitted, _proudly_ , before returning to look at Ryouta’s face, “When she died, Midorima was there, royal court doctor or something like that, but he knew how to hold himself in a fight. The only one who managed to almost get me, on the pier. We were sparring and he saw her jumping and my horrified face. He let me go, said some bullshit about Satsuki being unjustly involved and trying to pay her some respect or something like that.” He sent a look at the man, somehow still sleeping in the other cell. “I think he still doesn’t know she food poisoned half the guards in the whole jail to get me out of there.” 

Kise’s face probably told a tale for itself because Aomine laughed.

“Don’t get the wrong idea.” he said, “Her plan was to seduce one of the guards to let her into my cell, but instead the poor bastard collapsed. She was the worst cook on Earth.”

_Uhm…_ “That’s… impressive?” Really, what was Ryouta supposed to say to that? He was supposed to be on the Navy’s side, here.

Aomine just waved him off.

“Oh, well, it worked, so who am I to complain?” When he shook his head, the light hit his earrings once more and they tingled softly. “She was the most beautiful girl of the whole region and got men outside her door basically kneeling in front of her. She could have had them kiss the ground she walked on if she wanted to, but instead preferred wasting her life looking after her poor excuse of a brother. She could be married with a bunch of kids, today, if it wasn’t for me.”

“My sister killed herself.” 

Why was he saying that? His sister’s face fluttered for a moment in his mind, her golden hair always perfectly combed and her gentle smile from before — before the marriage, before the escape, before their lives went to hell —, and then the picture of the empty house the day he came back. He didn’t want to blame her, really, but he _did._

“I had defied our family, enrolled in the Navy, sailed for months, all for her. When I came back, they told me she had just left me the fuck alone without as much as a note.” He gulped on a dried throat, but he wasn’t sure drinking would help, so he shook his head. _Get a grip on yourself, Ryouta. It’s all in the past._ “Satsuki-san must have loved you deeply for acting the way she did and selling yourself short this way is disrespectful toward her. It’s like you’re telling her the thing she chose to die for is just nothing and you’re flat out belittling her intelligence and heart.” Aomine was staring at him now and Kise couldn’t stand it so he just turned his head to a side and pretended to pout. “I have a feeling she’d be punching you right now, if she were still alive.”

The heavy tension disappeared under the freshness of Daiki’s low laughter and Kise’s shoulders relaxed again. He turned to look at the pirate’s face and the smile he found was contagious.

“Probably.” the man was admitting and then he looked at Ryouta, with deep blue eyes that seemed to hold an important secret, one Kise felt himself drawn to, one that somehow… involved him. “Thank you.”

Those words weren’t something Kise would have ever expected to hear from the pirate, yet they sounded sincere. Daiki was rude and vulgar, but at the same time he was roughly honest, like a raw diamond his shape may be imprecise but his value stood in the crystal clearness he held. Ryouta liked honest people.

They stood in silence after that, the quiet broke only by occasional steps and Wakamatsu’s low snorting. The boat was swinging gently and the darkness wasn’t so thick with the full moon light falling from the manhole.

_But you’re not free._

Kise gulped, his eyes moving around. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but wherever he moved his gaze he found that everything around them seemed to be closing in on him. The walls, the grates, even their own clothes, they were all suffocating him and he ran a hand around his throat to try to clear away the feeling, uselessly.

He felt _trapped_. He knew he was, but this was an even deeper kind of hurt. It wasn’t his being in chains, it was bigger, like a gigantic hand pining him down. He couldn’t stand it and his fists clenched.

When the boat swung a bit once more, the light fell on Aomine’s face, marking the way he was staring at Kise’s weird behavior but also catching the soldier’s attention and directing it on something else, a little stupid idea on the back of his mind. For a moment, he thought he could hear Kasamatsu’s scolding and feel Akashi’s reproaching glare on his skin.

“Aominecchi?” He had never paid any of them mind and he knew he would soon one day regret this umpteenth disobedience, but for a moment he _chose_ not to bring himself to care.

“Uh?! Where’s that shitty name supposed to come fr-”

“Can you give me one?”

Aomine frowned, his complaint already abandoned.

“One what?” Even in the darkness, his arched brow stood out in all its confused glory, but Kise kept on staring at him without moving his eyes from the prize.

“Earring.”

For a moment, Aomine waited, as if not sure the other was done with his sentence, but then he frowned. He seemed to think for a bit, then his eyes ran to the door of the cell.

“You cannot pick the lock with that, I tried already.” he said, his voice tentative betraying how unsure he was about being on the same page of the other.

“I didn’t mean that.” Still, Kise didn’t look at him, or at least not in the eyes, because he was too focused on his ears. Almost unconsciously, he touched his own left one.

Aomine hesitated, blinking for a moment, but whatever mocking remark or grumpy answer was washed away by the intensity of the other’s gaze. 

He had already seen the change that could take place in Kise, at moment notice, and he knew that pretty boy could take care of himself on his own. If he was as good as his glare was scary, he was also one hell of a fighter. And the gods knew how much Daiki loved challenges.

So, instead he just cocked his head up a bit, trying to look at Kise’s face in a the correct way.

“I thought you guys from the army couldn’t get this kind of things? Tattoos and piercings and stuff?” he hazarded, still confused about whatever triggered such a decision in the soldier, but all he got back was an offended glare.

“Does this look like a Navy ship to you?” Kise hissed, but he was defensive, too much so, and Aomine held his anger with an impassive face. It took Ryouta only a couple of seconds to realize he wasn’t going anywhere like that, so he huffed and tried a new approach. “Listen, when we’ll get out of here, I’ll give it back to you. The hole will close up, right?”

Daiki looked all but convinced and his skeptic gaze flickered on Kise’s ears for quite a while before he finally murmured a low “I guess…”.

Ryouta’s heartbeat accelerated and he recognized it, the power of adrenaline and excitement filling every fiber of himself. He felt alive and the walls all around him seemed to loosen up a bit.

“I think I could use the earring itself to pierce the hole,” Aomine was saying, frowning to himself, “but we’ve got nothing to sanitize it with.”

Kise threw him an unimpressed glare.

“If I die for an earring infection after all of this, you’re allowed to laugh on my gravestone.”

Aomine didn’t laugh this time, but his grin made Kise want to punch him on the nose. He could almost hear the sound of bones cracking and it was morbidly charming.

“I would have done it even without your permission, pretty boy.” Aomine said in fact, mockingly, but before Kise could retort he was already pulling himself up. How he could with his back so badly injured, was out of the soldier’s knowledge. The pirate moved his hair back to show his ears and smiled, this time looking almost as excited as the other man, “So? Which one do you want?”

_Right._ Kise hadn’t thought about that.

With the dim light on night, he couldn’t pinpoint anything out all that well and Aomine’s dark complexion and hair helped little, so he moved himself to his knees and bend forward. His face reached barely a couple of inches from the pirate’s skin before he could see the jewels on the right ear properly and he observed them all carefully, before moving to check on the left one.

By doing so, he noticed Aomine had gone _extremely_ stiff and his lips were stirred into a thin line. He thought about asking but decided otherwise and returned to his task instead.

In Aomine’s left lobe was a little ring made with a silver band, thin in the flesh but growing wider in its lowest part. It was simple, yet elegant; refined but also rebellious. It didn’t seem good for someone as peculiar as Aomine, but, hell, it would suit Kise perfectly.

Without thinking much, he touched it carefully. “Would this be okay?”

He accidentally caressed Aomine’s skin in the process and he heard the other sucking a sudden breath in. He pulled himself back immediately, wondering if standing sat wasn’t too much of a strain on the pirate’s body, but what he saw what Daiki trying to hide his face from him by turning it to a side. It was too dark to be sure, but was he… blushing?

It was Kise’s turn to smirk mischievously and Aomine noticed, for sure, ‘cause he smacked the other on the crown on his head — high enough not to touch the wound —.

“Whatever, it’s not like I care for any of them in particular.” he grunted. Kise had a remark ready, but he stopped when he saw the pirate picking the jewel out. Excitement came back and washed over every other feeling but sheer expectation. “Okay, get ready.”

Kise didn’t know what to do to ‘get ready’, to be honest, so he simply moved an arm behind his had and used it to collect the strands on the other temple, pulling them backward enough to free the left ear, then he looked back at Aomine.

And grimaced, when he saw Daiki spitting on the earring to clean it.

“You’re disgusting.” he stated, striving to stand still when the other crawled closer and forced him to turn his head to a side with a gentle touch of three fingers on his chin.

“Hey!” Aomine pretended to be offended, despite the smile on his face, while with one hand he started massaging the lobe and pulling it a bit, as if testing the waters. “Be gentle, I’m doing you a favor, remember? I’m such a generous person I even let you choose!”

Kise didn’t even bother hiding he was rolling his eyes.

“Yeah,” he grunted, his heart beating stronger once more as he felt the earring clip touching his skin slightly, probably getting ready and waiting for him to declare himself the same, “and what do you want in exchange for all your magnificence?”

Aomine’s face popped up in his field of vision with his damn grin in full display.

“If they catch me, you bail me out and we’re even.”

“HOW IS THAT FAIR AT A-AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” 

Kise screamed at the sudden pain of something piercing through his ear. It wasn’t even all that painful, but the surprise played a trick on his instincts, making him jerk and, indeed, howl as Aomine — _that bastard!_ — laughed at him.

When Daiki let go of him, Kise retreated with a hand immediately on the offended ear and an offended glare in his eyes that could have rivaled _Akashi’s_.

Aomine still looked at him all smug and proud, as if he had accomplished who knew which great task.

“This earring and my services are pricy, sir costumer.” he even dared to say.

Kise _exploded._

“YOU BLOODY…!” He started screaming an endless string of profanities — some that even Aomine himself had never heard before — and in such a loud voice everybody possibly in every cell jolted awake in terrified stupor.

“Where did you even learn all those words?!”

***

When Akashi slowly surfaced, the first thing that came to him was the lack of pain. It came as such a nice change of habit that he basked in the feeling for quite some time, his muscles relaxed and slightly numb, his skin fresh and the cloths on his body soft like the pillow under his head. It took him all his willpower to force his eyes to open.

And he gaped when _finally_ he saw light all around him.

His eyes got immediately watery and tears tried to fell at the sudden change of brightness — and it was so awful to know he wasn’t used to the outside light anymore — but he forced them all in control and instead took in everything he could of the scenery he was into.

He could see the sky.

Teal, endless, bright, it opened above him with no borders, pacific and free, with playful numbs rolling lazily here and there. The wind ran against his naked chest making him shiver in euphoria. With the warmth of sun against his face, he almost laughed.

He clenched his fists agains the cloth he could feel under his hands, in a clumsy attempt to keep his overflowing emotions at bait, and he forced himself to take a deep breath. Clean air washed inside his lungs and he had to restart his work to calm down all over again, after the memory of the stench in the cells during the days at the port.

_Kise._

He jerked, as if waking up all over again, and suddenly all the feelings that had filled him just a second earlier turned into guilt, corroding him from inside. How could he stand there when Kise was still captive? He was his captain, it was his duty to protect his men!

His head turned around, trying to collect datas, everything he could use to recognize where he was and how had he gotten there.

And he felt his throat constricting once more when he realized… _he was still a captive too_.

He wasn’t on the outside, as he had thought, or at least not completely. The sky wasn’t borderless but opened above him in circle surrounded from magmatic black rocks. He was at the bottom of a short-volcano crater, in a _damn_ pit.

He was lying on a bundle of sheets, a blanket over his lower half, and clean trousers on. A new shirt was folded beside his head and there were the remnants of a fire at his left, some kind of deep pool or natural well at his right. All around, there seemed to be similar campings, but they were all empty for what he could see, which wasn’t much considering he had yet to try to get up.

He couldn’t feel the pain, but he couldn’t feel his right arm either. He knew that with what it had been through, he should be in atrocious pain so he was kind of worried of the lack of that. It made him extremely cautious as he initially pulled himself up on the left arm.

It held, so he could push himself to sit up and then, forcing himself not to hesitate, he turned his head to his right to check his right arm, but found it all bandaged from the shoulder to the elbow, and there was a lace around his neck where he could stick the arm to keep it from excessive strain. The gauzes were cleaned, though, unbelievably pristine, which meant they had probably been changed shortly before.

When he tried to poke at the shoulder he couldn’t feel anything and he wasn’t sure that was a good thing, but for as long as it meant he could go on and try to figure out how to save Kise and the others he wouldn’t complain. Instead, he took a deep breath and tried to move so that he could stand up, even if he felt his legs still a bit quivery.

“You should wait a bit longer.”

Akashi didn’t jerk, because the words that called out to him were preceded by the soft splash of water, and so he turned to the well and stood, dumbfounded.

There stood the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, breathtaking with her long pink hair sticking wet to both her arched back - as she pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the well - and to her chest - hiding her otherwise naked breasts but leaving in plain sight the soft belly. Her face was slightly rounded, as if still holding on to the remnants of a childhood that must have left her only a handful of springs before, and she had plump lips opening up in a bright smile. Her pink big eyes scrutinized Akashi playfully, yet held a dark note at their bottom, like a vague warning.

Still, she was a gorgeous woman.

“It’s not good to push yourself, Akashi-kun!”

Or at least, her _upper half_ was.

***

“Wait!”

Haizaki raised his hand almost on instinct when he heard the scream, but he did it with a grimace. He was not anybody’s _second in command_ now, he shouldn’t have to listen to whoever’s orders, yet he was still forced to listen to _that voice_ , on order of the emperor himself. His fists clenched.

Everybody on his crew stopped their movements and their ship’s pace slowed down considerably as the sails where let hung halfway. All the soldiers instinctively turned to the source of the warning and so he did, with an whole storm blazing in his eyes.

“I hope you have a good reason, Kazunari.” he hissed at the man running down the little stairs from the stern to the deck to reach him, “For your sake.”

Takao stood, ignoring the threat of his captain, directly in front of him. His dark hair were longer now, enough to be tied in a ponytail behind his nape, and Haizaki and the emperor were possibly the only ones to know the vow behind their growth. Some little strands had fallen out of place in the soldier’s rush, but his grey eyes still held the firmness of steel and the coldness of silver.

“I saw something.” he declared, pointing out at the darkness to their left and behind, toward North-West, “Some lights. I think it can be a ship.”

Haizaki followed his directions, but frowned, because nothing but thick darkness opposed to his gaze. He moved to the parapet and squinted his eyes, trying to find whatever had alerted his steersman but still he could see nothing.

Hell, he knew Takao had some fucking awesome sight, but still! The night was completely dark and it was a new moon night, yet the weather was quiet enough to know that if a light was out there, it should have been visible for at least three miles! It was _impossible_ for a human to naturally see further than that!

They had been out in the sea for weeks with no cease, searching every ship they came in contact with, asking for informations, fighting every kind of lowlife criminal, all looking for the emperor’s favorite, _fucking precious_ _Akashi Seijuro_ , and they were all completely exhausted. And nothing had come out! They had even went to search Nihon’s port just two weeks before and were now going back to Teiko, empty handed, and sure as hell nobody liked the thought of telling the emperor his most trusted general was in all likelihood laying at the bottom of the ocean.

Not to mention, Takao had been on duty since fifteen hours already — they had boarded a merchant ship that still had given them no clue at all —. It would come as no surprise if he had just dreamt of it all and Haizaki cussed under his breath.

“I can’t see a fucking anything, Kazunari!” he then growled, turning with annoyance toward the other, but Takao held his fury with an offended expression and clenched fists.

“I _know_ what I saw.” he hissed defiantly, his shoulders stiff and his lips pulled in a grimace. He looked ready to jump on his captain and rip his heart out and Haizaki had to restrain himself from cutting his throat here and there, but only because Nijimura had clearly taken the kid under his wing, for whatever fucking reason.

Haizaki growled a curse under his breath and he looked up at the vedette on the mainmast.

“What about you?” he called, half furious and half mocking, “Do you see anything?!”

The man named Kimura jerked, spyglass immediately to his eye and pointed in the direction Takao had indicated, but when he looked back down he was hesitant and his eyes lingered on the steersman with the guilt of a betrayer.

“No, sir.” he finally shouted, gulping right after that, and when Haizaki turned back at him, Takao looked _ill_. Pale, almost greenish, he was still looking upwards as if he couldn’t believe the words he had just heard.

“Kazunari…” the captain started, annoyed, but the other seemed to snap out of his reverie to turn to him in all urgency.

“They must have put out the lights!” he exclaimed, “They saw us and put out the lights; it’s too dark for us to see them, this way! This is all the more suspicious, we have to…!”

“ _We have to go back to Teiko!_ ” Haizaki’s shout shut Takao up violently, making his eyes widen and his body froze as the man spat poison all over him, “There nothing out there and we’re not wasting time for a trick of tiredness!"

“I saw it!” Kazunari yelled back, just as livid, but they both knew who had the upper hand and Haizaki stepped forward, his face barely an inch from the other soldier's as he glared at him in all superiority.

“Did you?!” he hissed back, his voice now so low only his interlocutor could hear what he was saying, but just as harsh and cruel as before, “Or did you just see what you wanted to?” 

“I…” Takao froze, completely, at those words, but Haizaki wasn’t done pushing against the pulsing wound.

“We’re halfway in between Teiko and Shuutokou, just where it happened.” he commented, his voice dripping mockery, and Kazunari jerked, as if burned. “I’m asking you one time more, but it will be the last. Are you _sure_ you saw something or did you just _think_ you saw something?”

Takao’s fists clenched and he gulped, his eyes flickered in the direction he had pointed out before as if hoping to see something again, as if _searching for confirmations he didn’t have._ Haizaki knew he had won.

“I…am not _completely sure_ , but…”

“No buts!” Haizaki straightened up and turned to his crew, “Back to your places, now! We’re heading East, to Teiko capital!”

“Sir!”

“And _you._ ” Takao stilled when Shougo’s hand grabbed onto his collar, pulling him close enough to force eye contact, but not too much to make the next words private between them, “You go back to your bunk and don’t you dare showing your face to me again before we’re back to the capital. _There_ , you will answer for defying your direct superior.” He threw the other backward and Kazunari stumbled, but managed to stand on his feet. He glared at the captain, but Haizaki simply stared coldly down to him, “Be grateful I’m not throwing you into a cell.”

Just like that, he turned his back and called another soldier to take the steersman role. Takao watched it happen with clenched fists, but before he could speak he caught sight of Miyaji, an older soldier who’d taken care of him when he was a greenhorn on his first expedition. The man was shaking his head at him, motioning that it wasn’t the time to press the issue, but still it took him all his willpower not to jump on his captain.

He turned and almost ran below deck, teeth clasping tightly onto his lower lip, and he shoved away everything that came onto his path. When he reached his bed, he let himself fall sat on it and grabbed at his hair, messing it up and accidentally untying the ponytail it had been in. Through gritted teeth, he cursed, once then twice then thrice.

What Haizaki had done was a cheap blow, Kazunari wanted to scream. He was just as tired as everybody else, it was dark, he was desperate and still hopeful: Shougo knew he wasn’t _sure_. He had never been, of anything, ever since Midorima’s ship was set in flames and left to wander, filled with corpses, on the ocean ‘till when another one found it and nobody had been able to tell if the doctor’s body was or wasn’t in between the others.

_“Takao!”_ the familiar scream filled his head in all his prideful annoyance, even with its low hidden worry at the edge, _“Stop acting so reckless, you fool! I’m not patching you up, this time, nanodayo!”_ And they both knew he would have, instead.

Kazunari took a deep breath that trembled on his tongue, but his head still turned, almost unwillingly. His hand moved toward his sack and his fingers searched inside, feathery careful, ‘till when they touched something cold and smooth, _frail_.

He pulled it out gently and held it at its edges with both hands, smiling bitterly at the irony of himself, with his perfect sight, clinging onto a stupid pair of _glasses_.

It was hard to breath.

He caressed the lenses and then turned them; tried them on just to pull them off immediately and laughing lowly at how _bad_ they were for him. He kept them in his palms.

There was no light to reflect on them, and it was probably good because he felt like he could use the lenses to set fire to the whole ship right now, just to see Haizaki’s terrified face. And who knew, maybe that way he would have seen Shintarou again, that way.

_Don’t!_ He shook his head as he harsly scolded himself and his grip on the glasses became tighter almost on its own. _Don’t give up! You can never tell!_

He could almost hear him, the most cynical doctor in the whole empire, muttering at his stupid determination. _“You’re an hopeless fool, Takao.”_ , he would probably tell him, _“Just let go, nanodayo.”_ He was just that much of a realist, but it was part of his charm, somehow.

Kazunari brought the glasses to his chest and held them there as if in some kind of hug. He closed his eyes not to cry and he bent forward, curling up on himself.

_I’m sorry, Shin-chan._ , he thought, _I can’t help it._

Because, whit that prideful cynical doctor, Takao had fallen in love.

***

“That was a close call. A _very_ close call.”

“Shut the fuck up, Furuhashi!”

“I’m just saying! We should wait for them to be a bit further before turning the lights on again.”

“How did they even spot us?! They stopped, you all saw that! We should have been too far for them to even notice…”

“That doesn’t matter. We’re waiting two hours and then we’re moving. Whatever they’re searching for, I have no intention to get caught up in between.”

“Yes, captain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TAKE THIS!
> 
>  
> 
> ~~I am not trapping myself by adding too many things all at once, I obviously am not, who do you think I am?!~~
> 
>  
> 
> You have no idea how long I've been waiting to introduce you to how Momoi died. Or didn't. And whatever. I promise you next time I will explain what happened to her, I swear, now LAY DOWN THOSE TORCHES, EVER HEARD OF "DON'T SHOOT THE WRITER"?!
> 
> Takao. My precious lovely baby. I really like Takao, you know? I like him an whole lot! That's why I make him suffer.
> 
> Also, please, take a moment to picture Aomine with earrings. Do it. Love him. Now let's move on.
> 
> I know, Akashi's been quite useless this chapter, but, hey, let's be honest, he's got an infected-injured-broken shoulders since days and he's drown twice already. He was bound to collapse at some point, it wouldn't be realistic otherwise! He'll come back full force soon enough, I promise v.v
> 
> Aaaaand, new characters will pop up next chapter, yeah! 
> 
> Okay, I'll calm down. That all said, yeah. I'm Satan, I love this chapter, I hope you're suffering but won't stop following this story and I would highly appreciate if you could not kill me. Thank you.
> 
> Agap~
> 
> P.S. To scream at me:
> 
>  
> 
> [Agap's Tumblr](http://agapantoblu.tumblr.com)


	6. Part VI

 

**Through Gold and Iron Chains**

**Part VI**

 

Hard and warm in a disgusting way, covered in spit and remnants of food. It annoyed him, but he still passed the tongue against the metal coin hidden against his palate, making sure it was still well stuck in between his upper teeth.

The feeling wasn’t one of the most pleasant, but he ignored it. It wasn’t like he cared anyway. It was just another boring action he had been trained to do — _check, be careful, check again, don’t drop your guard, act inconspicuous_ — and he went along with it more out of habit than for real conviction.

It had been so long since the beginning of the mission, he wasn’t even sure if it mattered anymore. Would his results still be useful by now?, should he just let the mask drop and act for once?

That kind of convoluted thinking was so troublesome. He hated it, it was such a pain to keep track of all those things.

He wondered briefly if it was the case to call the mission a failure, go back to the base, collect himself and then start again. He had at least a name and a face now, much more than what he had been given when the whole ordeal had started, so maybe it would be easier than sitting in a cell all day and wait for something to change. After just a few minutes, though, he changed his mind.

Sure, recent developments had caused him some difficulties, but all considered he was still in the place where he had the most chances to gather the intel he had been asked to get.

 _Can’t be helped._ , he thought half-resignedly and half-annoyed. He couldn’t change the rules so late in the game and since he had come that far, he would just stuck to his main order and keep on investigating for a bit longer.

He rolled on his side, grunting against the wood of the floor and considering the option of yelling something at the two idiots some cells down the corridor who were still being loud in their bantering. He changed his mind because it would have been too much work.

Grunting again and curling up on himself, his long legs against his huge trunk, he huffed some strands of purple hair away from his eyes and then finally decided to go to sleep.

Indifferent to everything around him, Murasakibara dreamt of sweets that night.

 

***

 

Akashi wouldn’t consider himself an estimator of women’s beauty.

He had had his fair share of suitors, but it had always been his father who handled them, delivering an order every once in a while to entertain this or that young lady. Seijuro never had to work hard to woo them and to be honest, he had never really even tried to do so: in his career, women were an obstacle; a tie that would have made it harder for him to leave every time he had to, on His Majesty’s orders. With that reasoning, he had managed to convince his father not to push too much for those encounters to be followed by any serious courting.

And for himself, he couldn’t say he had never found anyone who had piqued his interest so much. The only real beauties he had ever found himself appreciating, even if in a very distant and platonic way, had been Shuuzou’s and Ryouta’s. But to be fair, he was sure there was no creature on Earth, regardless of their gender, who wouldn’t find Kise attractive: he had the kind of looks that charmed the masses and were impossible to ignore.

The woman looking at him dead in the eyes was just like Ryouta: her beauty was an _objective_ trait of her, something that nobody could argue about.

If any objection could be moved, it would probably be toward her fish tail, but Akashi found — rather disturbingly, indeed — easy to overlook such a feature.

The girl had pulled herself out of the little well beside him and was now lying on her stomach, stretched toward him, dangling the end of her tail above her head and showing off the soft pink shade of all the scales, occasionally flashing her interlocutor with glimpses of rainbow reflections on the drops still on her.

With her chest pressed against the ground, Akashi found it easier to look at her without being constantly worried about her hair to move and reveal something it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to see. He was also quite sure she had noticed his discomfort and was ignoring it on purpose, but it could also be his paranoia and distrust talking by now.

Getting caught and forced into slavery tended to do so, to a man.

“Momoi Satsuki?” he repeated, tentatively, trying to find in his still confused mind why the name did ring a bell to him, but in vain.

The mermaid nodded energetically and her smile was bright and dazzling as she crossed her arms on the ground in front of her.

“How do you feel, Akashi-kun?” she asked, watching as he touched his bandaged shoulder carefully, “You’ll be out of use for quite a bit, but with the ointments you shouldn’t feel any pain by now.”

“I don’t, indeed. Thank you for your care.” Seijuro bowed his head, because Momoi was still a woman, at least partially, and he had been taught to respect ladies, but then he allowed himself to frown as more important matters filled his brain, “I hope you’ll forgive my rudeness, Momoi-san, but I absolutely need to know where I can find Kuroko. It is of the utmost importance that I speak with him as soon as possible.”

There was a flash in Momoi’s eyes, Seijuro saw it clearly. Probably he would have had some troubles identifying it before meeting Tetsuya, but now he found easy to recognize hesitation, worry and stubbornness placed together, just to be washed away by another cover of comprehension.

“Tetsu-kun is with Kagamin’s crew,” she murmured, reassuringly, and she even went to the point of touching Akashi’s hand, abandoned beside his thigh. “They’re working on a plan to free the prisoners of the ship that caught you. He should be back soon enough, they only needed to find a favorable place for the attack.”

That was…relieving. Akashi had to admit it. Momoi looked honest and the fact that Kuroko had kept on working while he was still knocked out made him feel a bit more hopeful, even if not by much.

The possibility that Hanamiya had already killed Kise on the spot after his escape was still present, though, and realistic enough to twist Akashi’s stomach with worry, so that before he could even think about how stupid it was he had already moved to try to get on his feet.

Momoi’s hand flashed to his wrist and it was surprising how much strength she held in that cute body of hers. Akashi was impressed, but not enough to forget all the people that were in danger.

“I need to go.” he declared, putting up his most demanding frown.

“You most definitely don’t.” Satsuki shook her head, striving not to roll her eyes at an injured person.

But, seriously, men were so stupid sometimes. So eager to jump into dangers, so stubborn, so prideful. Momoi had seen her fair share of people like that, _Aomine_ being the first.

“My best friend is on that ship.” She said and the way Akashi froze under her touch made her heart swell a bit. The look he sent her, she knew it was mirrored in her own face. Kuroko had been brief in telling her how the human with him had a friend on the ship, just like she had her Dai-chan, and apparently that was enough at least to bring them close for a bit. “Trust me, Tetsu-kun knows what he’s doing. You need to save your energies for when you’ll really need them.”

The sun wasn’t even high, by then. Midday seemed still far and the weather was merciful on Akashi’s weakened body, not too cold but not too hot either. He knew the seawater was still cold, spring was still in its early, but it was a good thing nonetheless, especially with what he had in mind.

“I will go with Kuroko and the crew when the mission will start.” he claimed, staring down at the mermaid in front of him to see her reaction.

A roll of her eyes, it was.

“That was implied. I will, too.” she said, and just like that her expression shifted slightly, in a way that reminded Seijuro of Ryouta when he got serious. Something in her eyes became cold, calculative, and the line of her jaw sharpened a bit as she bit her lower lip in a provocative — but not sensual, almost challenging — way. “It seems that Dai-chan still needs me to save his ass, from time to time.”

_Dai-chan?_

Akashi frowned, trying to recollect the name from in between the ones Kuroko and Midorima had told him and those he had heard the pirates screaming. It took him a bit, but when he connected the only possibility, he blinked in a awkward way for a moment.

“Aomine Daiki?” he asked, unsure because, for all his smartness, he couldn’t picture a single reason for such a beautiful and polite _mermaid_ to be connected with such a rude, vulgar, impolite, and frankly quite dirty, man. It didn’t really make sense, and his expression must have been a tale for itself for Momoi bursted out laughing all of a sudden.

“It seems impossible, doesn’t it?” she asked in between her chuckles, the pink hair falling on her chest from her back at every vibration of her shoulders and her tail falling down to smack the surface of the well water gently.

Akashi didn’t tell her that the only way he could picture them was with Aomine taking her as an hostage. He also had a feeling she would kick him in the guts in such a situation, but still.

Momoi stopped laughing in favor of a gentle smile and her hand slipped once more from Akashi’s wrist to the back of his hand, caressing there little circles on the pale skin. She seemed pensive and Seijuro let her be; she had promised Kuroko would be there soon so he could indulge her in the meanwhile.

A part of him, a very ignoble part of him, was screaming to try and take from her everything she knew about the man he had been forced to entrust Kise to. Was he a man who’d defend his comrades or one who’d put himself first in a dangerous situation?, would he help an injured stranger or leave him behind?, would he take advantage of the situation and of Kise’s physical situation or protect him? Kuroko had implied so, but Seijuro honestly couldn’t stop thinking about all of those questions.

And what annoyed him the most was, he felt his body disobeying him to show each one of them in the furrow of his brows, in the bend at the left corner or his mouth, in the tension of his shoulder and in his clenched fists. He knew some medicines could do that, loosen his self-control enough to thin his usual mask a bit, but Momoi seemed like she would be able to catch all of that even when he was in his full strength. He was a bit worried and a bit intrigued to know what she could see now that he was so unwillingly open.

Whatever it was, she nodded at it, and when she lifted her head again she searched his eyes with sheer openness in hers.

“Would you listen to my story, Akashi-kun?” she asked amiably, but there was something lingering under the surface, an implication to something Akashi couldn’t quite put his hands on.

She looked expectant, holding the key to decipher Aomine and secure Kise’s life and dangling it right in front of his nose, and really, he didn’t have much to do but wait for Kuroko to come and tell him when they were leaving.

When he nodded, her smile fell a bit into a nostalgic fog, but she shook her head fast.

“You must understand, Akashi-kun,-” She pushed herself up to her palms, bringing her face the same height as Seijuro’s and staring at him dead in the eye, almost challenging. He refused to look intimidated and held his ground lifting his chin just a bit. “-that good men are just as predictable as finding water in the sea.”

 

***

 

Kagami Taiga was a simple guy. 

He didn’t ask for much. Something to dress himself with, the sea all around him, _food_ and possibly some great adventure that wouldn’t kill him — which didn’t seem much to ask for a corsair, at all —.

And as a simple guy, he was content with being with his brother and his friends, even if some of them were a bit less human than others. Still, he didn’t particularly appreciated the feeling of webbed slimy hands running through his hair, something that his best friend knew _perfectly well_.

“Oi, would you quit it already?!” Yes, Taiga was a simple man with little to none patience, but in his defense the little glimmer in the blue orbs he turned to confront was indeed annoying.

Kuroko didn’t bother to change his expression in the slightest and kept on messing with his best friend’s hair, strong in the knowledge that for as long as Kagami would be carrying him bridal-style all around the base he wouldn’t be able to retaliate. Also, it was Kagami’s fault: Tetsuya had definitely told the human he could easily morph and walk on his own but the other had refused to listen to him.

His hands slowed down a bit, pensively, and Kagami huffed but let him be as he took the umpteenth turn in the labyrinth of caves that connected the open sea, and the little secret port that had been built on that precarious island, to the camp at the centre of the volcano.

Kuroko knew why Taiga was being so considerate of him, to the point he didn’t even _notice_ Akashi was bleeding and exhausted.

“Five years…” he muttered slowly, his nose nuzzling at the side of his friend’s neck, “It sounds like a really long time.”

“It was, idiot.” Taiga grumbled, and Tetsuya felt the grip of hands on him tightening just a little bit, “We were starting to lose hope, you know?”

He nodded, without adding anything, because he could imagine. On Hanamiya’s ship, with his and all the others’ lives permanently at stake, it had been easy to forget the time, to lose count of the days, the months, since his capture. The ocean may take pity on him, Midorima still was sure he had been a prisoner for little longer than a year! Kuroko wondered briefly if the lover he talked about in his sleep was still waiting for him.

Placing the events in the correct chronological order, he had mostly figured out what had happened when. At the beginning of his captivity, it was just him and Aomine. Midorima had come around an year later, Murasakibara more or less after other two. Since Akashi’s and Kise’s capture, and it felt so weird to think about it, had already been an whole _month_.

“And now we’re in such a hurry.”

Kagami didn’t bother commenting on the tug his friend gave to his hair. Tetsuya was lost in thoughts, as so often happened when there were lives at stake, and his nervousness would be betrayed only by those little tics of his. His expression was cold enough to fool anyone who had never had the chance to see what a big heart he really had.

And now, so many people were in danger. Taiga couldn’t wrap his mind around the horrors Kuroko had described to him and the others in the past hours, he couldn’t even imagine humans treating other humans with such cruelty.

They had already heard of Hanamiya before, _painfully so_ , but this was an whole different level of madness.

Which was the reason why he wasn’t exactly all that happy about the plan Kuroko had prepared. But when had Kuroko ever listened to anyone?

“Just be careful, okay?” he ordered gruffly, pointedly turning his head to the other side not to meet Tetsuya’s inquisitive irises, “We lost you for five years, we have no intention of losing you again.”

 _What a weird gentle human._ , Kuroko thought, and not for the first time, as looked at his friend’s profile while the other still pretended not to care as much as he truthfully did.

 

_“For humans, nothing good ever comes from getting involved with merfolk for too long.”_

 

Kuroko knew it, he had _felt_ it on his own skin. In both the roles he knew how bad it was for humans and merfolks to meddle with each others, yet here he was, coming back to the volcano island every once in a while to sit on the pier and hear Kagami and the others singing obscene songs in terrible voices, to listen to the kind of adventures his body would never allow him, to mix with the warmth of people that lived under the direct light of sun instead of miles of water.

And of all the people living under the sun, he thought about _one_. One whose hair were fiery red and whose eyes were made of the sharpest coral and whose voice could have probably enchanted him too, quite ironically. He thought about that one and how he would sure be awake again by now and probably fidgeting and kicking to go back immediately to his friends, to fight even if he was clearly in no condition to. He thought and then he shook his head.

He couldn’t let himself being distracted now. Aomine and the others needed him, and Momoi would have surely killed him if he let anything happen to her precious friend.

Forcing himself to push all the unnecessary thoughts out of his mind, he resumed messing with his friend’s hair.

“GODDAMMIT, KUROKO, LEAVE IT ALONE!”

 

***

 

“Dai-chan is a troublemaker, that much you must have noticed. He’s always been, since when we were kids; so caught up in his imaginary adventures and his big dreams. His parents died when he was really young of an illness, they were our neighbor and my parents took him in with us. We’ve been together since always.

“Back then, we all already knew he liked challenges: the stronger the opponent, the more fired up he would get. He picked fight with older boys at first, then started sneaking at the port to spy on the boats. He looked at the sea with sparkling eyes and my parents didn’t know, but I did, that it was just a matter of time before he left. We thought he was ‘lively’.

“He found a job as a ship boy, went and sailed. My mom was worried he would get in danger but he came back every time and at the beginning every time he seemed more excited. But time passed and the ship he was on belonged to a little company; he could only see the same places so many times before he became restless again.

“I don’t think you can understand the kind of impatience that was filling him. Every day he spent on land, he looked more and more like a caged beast. I looked into his eyes and they were almost feverish. I asked him to tell me what he saw so many times but I couldn’t understand him. He talked about chains I couldn’t see and soon enough he stopped trying to get me to understand.

“He would still come back to see me every once in a while. He and my parents had always gotten along so and so as he grew up, my dad thought he was too troublesome and my mom would sometimes call him ungrateful, but I wouldn’t stand for it. I know Dai-chan was suffering; he couldn’t help the way he felt, couldn’t change the fact that our little world was too tiny for him to fit in.

“He was good, at heart but also with a weapon. When his job as a sailor started limiting him just like my family did, I knew it was just a matter of time before he lunged for something more, something bigger, and took it with both hands and no regret.

“I’ll be honest with you, Akashi-kun. If I told you I was expecting him to become a soldier and roam the oceans to see the world, I would be lying. That was what I told my parents, and they believed me, but the truth is Dai-chan could never be a soldier. Discipline would try to kill his soul and he’s never been one to let things happen to him. He only listened to those he really respected; ranks wouldn’t have worked on him and, honestly, he would have only gotten himself in troubles with his defiance.

“You’re an officer, aren’t you? So you probably won’t understand; maybe you’ll also despise me, but when Dai-chan came home one day and told me he had joined a pirates crew, I was relieved. Don’t look at me with that face, I can see you’re not as disgusted as you are curious. How could I, a girl from the outskirts of the capital, be so at ease with the knowledge that my best friend and brother had become an outlaw? But if you had seen how miserable he was before, you would understand; probably not agree, but understand. I don’t ask much more from you.

“I kept his secret for him. Every time he came back, it would be by land, his boat anchored somewhere in another port, in another town, and I would pretend to go fetch him up at the docks. I would tell my parents all kind of lies about his travels and how his captain was happy of his determination, sometimes I would lie about some stunt he supposedly pulled so they would believe me.

“Once he told me if it ever became too much and I wanted to betray him, he would not hold it against me. I smacked him so hard, Akashi-kun, he still had the bruise when he went back to his crew and he sulked all our next meeting, saying his friends wouldn’t stop teasing him for getting himself beaten up by his lil’ sis’.

“I didn’t care what he did, Akashi-kun, but I also didn’t want to know the details. It would have been too much. I’d have rather live not knowing the price of my brother’s happiness. Was it a craven way to act?, shameful? Probably. I didn’t, and I still don’t, care. Dai-chan was the most important person in my life, everybody else I could consider them just a casualty. It hurt me, but I made my choice and I would not get back on that.

“That’s why, when one day Dai-chan didn’t come at our meeting spot when we had established, I went to the guards post and checked the wanted posters. Would you believe it? They had already took Dai-chan’s down. I went to a guard and told him I thought I had seen that pirate in town and the man laughed at me, saying I was hallucinating because Aomine had been taken prisoner with his captain a week before. The other pirate had already been hung, it was a matter of time before the entity of Dai-chan’s crimes was determined and he was sentenced to death too.

"Do not laugh at me, Akashi-kun, but sometimes I think some of his character rubbed off me in all the years we spent together.

"I knew nothing of fighting, but I wouldn’t let anybody hurt my brother. I had worked at the jail for some time, I helped cleaning the place. I’ve always thought it could come back in handy if…something bad happened. It did and I was ready.

"I know you’re probably already judging me, Akashi-kun, and that everything you think of me must not be good after what I told you, but here comes another bit: I would do anything for Dai-chan. Even seduce the guards of his cell, even seduce every single soldier of the jail if that was what it would take.

"Nobody stopped me when I walked into the Royal Palace, Akashi-kun. Your comrades get used easily to let in the beautiful women, even if their excuses may not be all that believable in the middle of the night. Still, I got in. I had visited Dai-chan in the morning, pretending to be curious about such a dangerous criminal. The soldiers who had showed me the way had told me they would be guarding him all night, looking all smug as they thought I’d be impressed. 

"I was, to be honest. Impressed with their stupidity, that is.

"I showed up that night with dinner. My hands were shaking as I thought about selling myself to earn my brother’s freedom, but I was determined. My plan was to offer the deal after the food, but in middle of the meal both the soldiers felt sick and collapsed. I still don’t know what happened, maybe something I had used was rotten, but it didn’t really matter.

"I had an idea and went down the corridor, as further as I had food for, offering a bit of something to every soldier I saw, then I went back to the cells as they fainted one after the other.

"And do you know what’s the first thing Dai-chan told me?! ‘WHAT THE FUCK, SATSUKI, ARE YOU STUPID?’ He called me _stupid_! If it wasn’t for _this_ stupid he would be dead by now! He’s the stupid one, stupid and ungrateful! Tsk.

"Thank gods he was good at coming up with insults while running. We got only so far before someone found us out and people started chasing after us. We made it to the room with the tapestry of a red mermaid, do you know it? The one beside the door to the north tower? Well, we got there and he took one of the decorative swords on the wall, but it was clear as day he couldn’t fight all those enemies alone. Not to mention, even if he hadn’t been through too much because he was just an underling, he had still been beaten up good and his arm was stiff, there where they had fire marked him with the P of ‘Pirate’.

"Akashi-kun, we had gotten so far! I couldn’t let him die there, can you understand this much? Regardless of what he had done, he was still my brother. My little brother. He always teased me about the months I have on him, but I honestly thought of myself as the older sister who should have protected him.

"And so I did. I told him of the secret passage behind the tapestry and how it lead to that little secret pier at the bottom of the cliff near the north-eastern wall. 

"Close your mouth, Akashi-kun, flies will get in.

"I see you know of the passage I’m talking about. Well, there’s little soldiers aren’t prone to tell a young woman, but I found it on my own during one day of my cleaning duties. The tapestry was too out of place, its subject too weird for its context, so I guessed it was hiding something. I told Dai-chan all the soldiers knew about it and that if we left the tapestry on the ground, they would all choose that path, especially since he was a pirate, for as long as they could hear someone running down the stairs.

"I told him I would go down there and lead the soldiers after me, that even if they caught me they would be gentle with a woman; I told him to take the door to the tower, that up there was a rope to climb down the wall and out of the castle, that it was how I had gotten him. Poor Dai-chan believed me immediately.

"That’s why I say good men are predictable, Akashi-kun. Dai-chan was just as good as a man that he would have never let his sister be a bait for him.

"‘I will led them to the pier,’ he said. ‘I will deal with them somehow, you did enough. Go up to the tower and escape, I’ll come back to you when things calm down.’

"I pretended to fight him for a bit and to give up when the steps of the guards came louder. I watched him throw the tapestry on the floor in the most clear way and get into the secret passage, even leaving it open. He grinned at me and vanished down the stairs, making as much noise as he could.

"I waited for him to be far enough before closing the passage and put the tapestry back in its place, then I opened the door to the tower and ran upstairs.

"I heard them chasing after me, Akashi-kun, but I wasn’t scared, not until the second I heard a voice calling out to the soldiers. Someone had understood the trick and instead went down the secret passage, but I couldn’t waste time.

"I reached the tower and bent outside the window to look at the secret dock. I thanked all the gods when I saw Dai-chan there and that only one man had gone after him. He looked taller then Aomine, but I couldn’t see much more in the darkness.

"I got on the eaves when the soldiers reached me. They told me to surrender and not to do anything stupid, but I saw that some of them had realized Dai-chan wasn’t there and were going back. Their voices were so loud even the two on the dock heard them and they both looked up at me.

"You must understand that for as freedom driven as Dai-chan was, he would have never abandoned me there. If I was caught, he would surrender too, I knew that much.

"I couldn’t let him do that.

"I was smiling when I jumped, Akashi-kun. I hope he saw that, for as unrealistic as it may be. I hope he saw it and he knew I was glad to give up everything for him. I don’t know if he did, though.

"A moment later, my body slammed against the water so hard I think I broke half my bones. I didn’t know water could be that…thick. I started sinking with my sight going black, it didn’t even hurt anymore, you know? It was so cold I could barely feel where my body ended and the sea started. I watched little bubbles of air escaping from my lips and running upward fast, like little scared rabbits.

"And then something warm embraced my waist.”

 

***

 

If anybody ever bothered to ask him for an opinion — and if he ever was in the mood to indulge them with an answer despite the stupidity of the question —, Midorima would have said that Kise was _childish._

He didn’t doubt of the fellow soldier’s bravery or ability, but, oh, if he wasn’t obnoxious. Even now, with a hand covering his ear — newly pierced in questionable circumstances and even more questionable hygienic conditions —, he was sporting an annoying pout as he glared at Aomine, whom in return was laughing loudly. At least now they had stopped screaming profanities at each other, but Shintarou wasn’t inclined to forgive them now that his sleep had been chased away.

He was tired, grumpy and his back hurt — really, Aomine hadn’t been the only one to meet Hanamiya’s anger, but apparently the doctor didn’t matter — so he could help some people to leave him alone.

At the same time, he was annoyingly conscious of how his attention wouldn’t leave the two idiots. He didn’t want it to happen, but his eyes had no way to leave their frames as they inched closer almost without realizing, shifting slightly at every movement of each other. Kise’s earring was little, yet Shintarou stiffened every time he caught a little flash of light on it.

It was just a matter of time before he was found out, but it happened far soon than what he had planned and the blink in Ryouta’s eyes was slow, calculative, before running back to Aomine.

“Move,” he ordered the pirate as he crawled toward the side of the cell that they shared with Midorima’s. “I want the doctor to take a look at your shitty work.”

“Oi! Be grateful, you bastard!” But Aomine moved aside, and even showed his back to the other two in a fit of offense that made Shintarou roll his eyes.

Seriously, he was surrounded by _brats._

All the same, he shifted closer and bent forward so that his face was no closer than a palm to Kise’s. Enough to talk without being heard, he realized when Ryouta’s gaze turned predatory and thoughtful. He outstretched his hands and touched the earlobe gently, honestly checking the piercing, but the other didn’t seem inclined to waste time.

Honestly, it wasn’t like they had anywhere to go, Shintarou thought.

“What’s your problem?” the blond officer hissed, managing to look pissed and dangerous despite talking barely louder than a whisper.

Midorima found it annoying.

“I don’t have a problem,” he hissed back, in the same volume and with a grimace that he couldn’t stop. He may or may not have pulled at the ear a bit too roughly, but he didn’t care. “You, on the other hand, will have one soon, if you don’t open your eyes and realize in what kind of situation you’re putting yourself.”

For a moment, Kise stood silent, so much the doctor thought he had come across to him, but then he averted his gaze, moving it toward the corridor.

“Look, it’s just an earring,” he denied, quite pathetically in Midorima’s book. His expression must have been a tale for itself, for when Kise turned and saw it, he made a face and added, more firmly: “It’s not a big deal.”

“But _he_ is, at least according to the bounty on his head.” Shintarou waited to meet the other’s eyes before finishing. “And so are you.” _But on the other side._

Kise frowned this time and it honestly surprised the other, even if he didn’t show it.

“I don’t know what you mean,” the blond said. “It’s really just a stupid earring, and I even promised to give it back if we get out of this alive-”

“ _When._ ” Kise jerked at the sudden poison in the doctor’s voice, but the other didn’t let him interrupt any further. “Not _if_. And that’s exactly why I’m saying you have no idea of what you’re doing.”

Kise’s eyes said he still hadn’t caught on what he was being told and Midorima sighed, feeling helpless against human stupidity.

“Listen,-” he finally muttered, voice still low and eyes barely escaping to Aomine’s frame for a second, wondering really what that stupid had done to deserve him to take care of half his troubles, “-I don’t care what you do or in how many disasters you get caught. It’s not my problem and I don’t care. I _will_ get out of here in any case, and don’t think I won’t leave you behind if I have to. I’m just saying you should think about this a bit more seriously and consider _all_ the options and where they’d lead you.”

 

_“Shin-chan, would you stop thinking about what’s the right thing to do, for a moment, and think about what it is that you want to do? You cannot live your life following the rules step by step, you know.”_

 

When Midorima looked back at Ryouta, the man was looking at him with eyes slightly widened and a weird _something_ moving the corners of his mouth, so Shintarou hurriedly scoffed at him. He let go of the earlobe he had kept in his hand until then and moved his hand to fix the glasses on his nose, making a point of putting up the sternest expression he could muster up.

“Whatever, do what you want,” he grunted. “As I said, it’s not like a care or something.”

The steps on the deck above them became slightly faster, more agitated, but Kise ignored them and chuckled at him. _At him!_

“Midorimacchi is such a tsundere!” he giggled.

 

_“Shin-chan is such a tsundere.”_

_“Shut up, Takao! I’m leaving!”_

_“Tsun tsun Shin-chan, no! Don’t get angry at me! Don’t leave! I’m mortally wounded, I need all my lover’s care to make it out alive!”_

_“Just hurry up and die, you idiot!”_

_“Shin-chan, you’re holding my hand.”_

_“TAKAO!”_

 

“Midorimacchi?”

“Shut up, I’m not!” He knew he was being far more aggressive than he needed to, Kise’s surprised expression was quite a proof, but he couldn’t stop himself from clenching his fists.

 _I will make it out of this._ , he thought to himself, like mantra, _I will make it out of this and go back. I’m not dying here._

Ryouta still looked lost, like a puppy that had been kicked and still didn’t understand what for. Midorima cursed at himself for the little sheer of disappointment he felt for not being answered back with a cocky remark and a laughter.

“What’s with that stupid nickname, anyway?!” He wasn’t trying to make amend and he wasn’t trying to clean that look away from the other’s face. He wasn’t at all.

Kise’s grin was the cockiest he had ever seen. “I add _-cchi_ to the names of those whom I respect!”

Midorima spluttered something incoherent and vaguely offensive, but before he could settle on a single insult, the other man had already turned and was moving to Aomine’s side to start bothering him who knew with what.

Shintarou stared at him as his hands grabbed onto the pirate’s arm, searching for warmth of contact. He bit his lower lip and his fists clenched again.

Kise was not Takao. 

He knew it and he didn’t want him to be. He wanted the real thing, not a surrogate or a copy; he wanted black hair and grey eyes, a short body to embrace completely and a face that laid on his chest right above his heart, an obnoxious laughter, an annoying personality and an energetic singing voice. Gold and topaz held no meaning for him.

Aomine slammed his hand on Ryouta’s face to keep him away and started laughing at the weird grimace his fingers were forcing the other into.

Kise was not Takao, but he was so similar that it was tearing Midorima’s heart apart just to stand beside him and see him finding what he felt like losing every day a bit more.

_I will make it out of this. I will make it out of this and go back. I’m not dying here._

Kazunari’s laughter rang in his ears so loudly he almost didn’t hear the soldiers climbing down the stairs.

 

***

 

“Wait.”

Momoi tilted her head to a side, clearly surprised at being interrupted right in the middle of her passionate narration, but Akashi felt only slightly guilty for that. His brain was stuck on a point and wouldn't let it lie down.

“You... weren’t a mermaid?” he frowned, confused. He didn’t remember anything much, but he was pretty sure Kuroko morphed as soon as he entered water, and he sure didn’t report any kind of injury from the heavy impact against water surface. He had always assumed she would realize her nature at some point in the story but apparently that wasn’t the case…?

Satsuki blinked at him.

“No? Merfolk born are extremely rare, most of us have been turned by others. I only know one pure-breed, that's the one who turned Tetsu-kun. And Tetsu-kun turned me.!

 _Oh._ That made sense in a very disturbing way, almost as disturbing as the way he couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“How did he change you?”

Akashi wasn’t clueless, judging people had always been something he was good at and the Emperor had relied on that skill of his more than once, so he knew that Momoi wanted to lead him there. She had something she wanted to tell him, but she also wanted him to be the one to ask, and he had a vague idea of what it was but he was still interested in the details.

He was sure she hadn’t mentioned Kuroko so offhandedly without reason.

The way she smiled was almost predatory and it honestly made Akashi tense instinctively, his body ready for an eventual attack. She pushed herself up on her palms, her face suddenly just an inch from Seijuro’s.

The color in her irises seemed to be twirling, hypnotic.

“Haven’t you realized it, yet?” Her lips brushed against his, but just barely. He stood still like a statue, too caught up in keeping an iron grip on his own self as it was washed away by the girl’s eyes. “He _kissed_ me.”

That broke the spell and Akashi pulled back, eyes wide open, and Momoi retreated a bit, her face now lit up in childish satisfaction.

 _Kiss_. She was kissed and turned into a mermaid. He had been kissed too. Did that mean...?

“Don’t sweat it, Akashi-kun.” Momoi smiled at him more honestly, this time, as she moved to sit just beside him. Her long tail slipped gracefully on the ground to stretch in front of her in all its magnificence, a good arm longer than Akashi’s legs. “A kiss is not enough to trigger the transformation,” she assured, forcing him to divert his eyes from the pink scales shining peacefully in the sunlight. “It only gives your lungs the ability to extract air from water, but it takes around five to complete the mutation. Are you interested, Akashi-kun?”

_You shouldn’t be._

He nodded.

“A kiss to breathe,-“ Momoi chirped, almost humming, lifting her webbed fingers as she counted, “-two for gills and three for hands, with four your legs melt together and with five they cover in scales.” She turned, smiling innocently. “It could take less than an hour to transform someone, but the whole process is _so_ painful no human could survive it all at the same time."

“I don’t remember any pain…" Akashi try to object but he trailed off in the middle of the sentence to grimace.

 _Obviously_ he hadn’t felt anything, he was injured and drowning. His body probably hadn’t even bothered registering the new pain considering how much it was already experiencing and simply shut down his consciousness completely, making him faint.

Still, he had been out for three whole days and it had never happened before - he endured far worse on the ship, even broken a shoulder on purpose, and he hadn’t fainted at all - so that gave him quite an idea of how terrible it must have been. He felt _almost_ grateful he had _almost_ drown. Almost.

Momoi was looking at him as if he had just given her the greatest disappointment and he glared back just as hard. They kept up their contest for a while before she surrendered, but with a sigh.

“Anyway,-” she resumed, to her credit looking only slightly pouting, “-I didn’t plan to accept turning at first. Every kiss is not undoable, but the first one does not affect a human’s life too much. It’s only after the second that stopping is... not advisable.” 

She shook her head gently, smiling melancholically. “I knew I couldn’t go back to my life as it was before, I would have be a criminal too as soon as they found out I was alive, but I still hoped I could have built a new one somewhere else. Tetsu-kun had only kissed me once and then helped me healing, for months, but my spine had been damaged and I couldn’t walk anymore. I still wanted to see Dai-chan so I asked Tetsu-kun to bring me to the town Dai-chan used to disembark at with his crew. We stood there for other months, but he never came.

“Tetsu-kun talked with some fishes - don’t give me that look, they’re great conversationists, extremely funny and smart  - and he discovered his crew had never come back there again. I guess it made sense, they had been captured there, but it still...hit me hard. I had nowhere to go, I couldn’t move anymore, Tetsu-kun was the only one I could rely on... Akashi-kun?"

Seijuro arched his brow a bit, slightly taken aback for being addressed so abruptly, but nodded to her anyway. She stuck her tongue out a bit in mock guiltiness.

"I lied," she admitted candidly. "It wasn’t exactly Tetsu-kun who transformed me. He started it with the first kiss, but denied the others. He told me not to take any rash decision and to wait to see Dai-chan before making my choice. He promised to find him, no matter what, and he left me with some of his friends, other mermen and...creatures." All the cheerfulness faded away rapidly, leaving her almost empty to reveal how thick the mask she could put on was. She murmured: “He said he’d be back soon with Dai-chan.”

It didn’t take Akashi much to put everything together. Kuroko had left to find Aomine, but was hurt somehow; he was rescued by the ship that Aomine was on coincidentally - or not? - and had hypnotized Hanamiya to get to stay on board and win Aomine's trust, so that he could bring him to Momoi; but the situation got out of hand and Daiki was caught. 

It dawned on Akashi just then that Kuroko could have left at any time, he just needed to jump outboard, but decided not to. Sure, he didn't have the medallion that he needed for getting whatever help to get rid of Hanamiya but if he hadn’t bothered with the prisoners, he could have just disappeared, period. He had chosen a five years captivity over leaving the man his friend was so in need of and, even if the two of them had grown close over time, it was still terrifyingly selfless of him.

Akashi gulped.

The rest of the story, he could easily guess on his own.

“He didn’t come back and you asked one of his friends to change you,” he tried, but honestly felt little accomplishment when the mermaid nodded.

“I waited an year and a half,” she whispered. “His merfolk and human friends went to look for him many times but to no avail and he sent no message. After all those months, I was alone again.” She took a deep breath and, there, she was smiling again. “So I decided I wanted a new beginning."

Akashi marveled at the strength of that woman. She was smiling at him like it was all in the past, as if she hadn’t just found Tetsuya after five years or heard that her brother was still captive and a slave or that she had undergone excruciating pain in a mutation that had been possibly for nothing. She was just genuinely happy they were alive. It made him respect her, really.

“The good point is that now I have all the means to tear apart whoever kept them both from me~.”

 _Too much joyful_ , Akashi couldn’t help but think as she wriggled her tail up and down childishly, speaking of murderer. He liked her.

“The mutation cannot be undone?” he asked. “Kuroko was a human on the ship and since Aomine is still alive…”

“What has been done is done, Akashi-kun,” she interrupted him solemnly. “I cannot go back to how I was. Like Tetsu-kun, I can take human form for some time, but it demands a great toll on my body and mind. I’m sure you noticed he isn’t exactly the strongest human-” Akashi grimaced at that remembering the disaster of being pulled back on the ship, “-and anyway walking is extremely painful for us. Can you imagine stepping on a sea of glass shards? All the time. It’s too much, it honestly terrifies me to think of doing it for as long as Tetsu-kun has,” she shook her head. “I’ve always known he had a will of pure steel but really…”

She trailed off and Seijuro let her. He was storing informations in the holes in the story, drawning conclusions and solving questions he had. Everything fitted perfectly but still not one thing.

He rarely trusted people and it had helped him doing his job and surviving, he had no reason to change now. Yet, he did.

“Kuroko had me help him retrieve a medallion from Hanamiya, he said it was some sort of key.” He had no reason to ask her and she had no reason to answer him, but she also didn’t have any to tell him her story and did so anyway. He could try his chances at this, he thought. “Do you know anything about it?”

Surprisingly, Momoi groaned. 

“Yes,” she hissed and her tail smacked the ground violently. “I know I don’t like it.”

That was...extremely unhelpful.

Akashi rolled his eyes before fixing them on her in a stern gaze.

“Mind elaborating?” and it wasn’t exactly a question.

Momoi must have sensed it too because she crossed her arms before her chest, huffing.

“That medallion works as a key in an underwater temple or something like that. A token of the alliance between merfolk and another species, I reckon. I don’t know much, everybody thought it had been lost with its possessor, but apparently it allows Tetsu-kun to ‘direct the rage’ or something. Don’t know, didn’t ask,” she looked to a side almost embarrassed. “I only know it involves a certain friend of Tetsu-kun and I, and that he doesn’t really like to talk about it.”

That wasn’t much to work with, but Akashi didn’t push any more. He felt that Momoi had been honest with him, so there was no point anyway. And he could still safely assure that whichever power the medallion gave Kuroko, or how his friend was involved, Tetsuya was planning to use it against Hanamiya.

And whatever was against Hanamiya, Akashi was okay with.

He opened his mouth, ready to ask, when he was interrupted.

“Akashi-kun. Momoi-san.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, let’s level up the MidoTaka Angst, shove in a little MidoKise moment and see once more Momoi’s tragic backstory -.-
> 
> Someone asked me once what had happened to Kuroko for him to get injured and rescued by Hanamiya’s ship. Well, now you know: nothing happened. He hurt himself to get on board. Don’t tell me he wouldn’t do this; he would do even more for his friends.
> 
> Now, I’m sorry if nothing much happened, really, but next chapter will have more action, I needed to push some new characters and lay the basics for some future development ^^”
> 
> Let me know what you thought about this!


	7. Part VII

 

**Through Gold and Iron Chains**

**Part VII**

 

“Your Majesty.”

Nijimura closed his eyes, heavy lids falling on a tired gaze. His irises had always been made of steel, but lately their sharpness had come to lack, dulled by an endless worry that had recently culminated with a loss greater than he was ready to accept. He ran a hand through the pitchy black locks. The royal crown — just a stupid golden ring in the size of his head, with a motive of ivy and grape carved on the surface — stood abandoned unceremoniously on the windowsill just by his left and shone just lightly in the pale moonlight.

Shuuzou had never cared for that thing. He wasn’t supposed to wear it and never wished to. He trained to be a good soldier and, yes, even a good leader, because a good position in the Army was just to be expected of him, but nothing more. And when the Emperor died abruptly of an illness, with no heir, it had been chaos and he had merely found himself caught in the crossfire against his will.

When the echo of the soldier’s voice died down in the empty study, he didn’t turn, but his head showed its side as he spied from a corner of an eye the figure standing stiffly behind him. The dirty clothes and the messy hair told him the man had just reached the port, probably touched solid ground barely minutes before, and his cold gaze answered the question even before Nijimura even posed it. “Did you find anything?”

Haizaki lowered his gaze, but just slightly. He had never fared well with etiquette, but Shuuzou found he had little to no desire and possibly even less strength to put him back in his place, at least for this time. “Nothing, Your Majesty. Some corpses from the Red Dragon’s crew had been found by passing boats or on the shores, but none of them seems to belong to Akashi. Many others are still missing, also. It’s safe to assume the ship has been completely sunk, and not abandoned to float somewhere.”

Nijimura’s eyes closed again as he turned to face the window again.

_“It’s the only way to avoid a civil war, Nijimura-san. There will be little to no opposition to your coronation and you can lead this kingdom far better than Shirogane-sama ever did, we both know that.”_ Akashi had looked older than his age while saying those words; he was nothing more than a stupid fifteen years old brat playing with the big boys back then, but his eyes told a different story and spoke of many sceneries he had taken into account and was ready to face.

With Shuuzou’s coronation, the Akashi’s family had become the dangerous second in line, the other option for everybody who didn’t look fondly at the new king, and as such countermeasures had to be taken. It had been Akashi Masaomi’s order, one that maybe was given begrudgingly or maybe out of spite against the son that had withdrew from the fight for the throne, but in no more than five weeks since Nijimura’s enthronement Seijuro had been moved from the land Army to the Navy and shipped far, _far_ , away from the capital of Teiko, the city of Rakuzan.

Shuuzou had never stopped feeling guilty for his junior’s exile — because that’s what it was, in all but name — and that was why he called Seijuro back to the palace as soon as his training was complete, showering him with all the titles he could while trying to give back the honors he had unwillingly taken away.

“We didn’t have many hopes to begin with.” His voice stood firm and steady, like a leader’s — an Emperor’s — should be, but when he opened his eyes and saw Haizaki’s reflection in the glass he realized his face was betraying him. Shougo looked at him as if waiting for an outburst of any kind, while his reflection appeared like a broken shard of its own, an empty washed out shell of how he used to be before the last events.

Once morning came, he would be back to his stern and firm persona, ready to lead the country, but for now, with the crown resting beside him, he let himself tremble under his loss.

Haizaki didn’t have to tell him that Seijuro was gone, with all probabilities. Nijimura wasn’t an idiot, he could draw that conclusion by himself, so he just made a gesture with a hand, dismissing his general, and waited to be left alone.

When the door closed behind him, his arm moved almost on its own and the crown clanged loudly as it bounced on the floor once, twice, thrice.

He let it roll on the ground, uncaring, as he laid his forehead agains the cold window.

_I’m sorry, brat._ , he thought, bitterness flooding his mind, _I’m sorry I made a shitty job in keeping you safe. I’m sorry I wasn’t there._

The memory of blazing red hair and a faint, slightly embarrassed, smile accompanied him through one more sleepless night.

 

***

 

Haizaki heard the sound of metal hitting the floor and shook his head, but didn’t dare to get back into the Emperor’s private quarters and simply walked back to the main corridor, where a couple of his men waited for him.

He squared his shoulders and lifted his chin when Otsubo Taisuke and Ishida Hideki appeared in his field of vision. His hand found the handle of his sword instinctively.

Hideki was too weak to oppose him, Haizaki knew, but Otsubo was a veteran and one of the most skilled soldiers in the Navy, on his way to make a career and probably very close to get the captaincy of a ship of his own. Not to mention, he and that stupid Miyaji man had a soft spot for Takao.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, but stopped in front of them.

“The Emperor wants to be left alone, nobody is to approach his quarters until he himself leaves them,” he declared, looking at Taisuke. “Go refer the Palace Guards his orders and then join the rest of the crew. We’ll disembark our cargo tomorrow, now you all go to sleep. It’s too fucking late for anything else.”

Otsubo seemed surprised by the order, but he was respectful of the hierarchy, a trait Nijimura appreciated greatly in him, and simply bowed before leaving down the corridor to obey. Haizaki watched him go, waiting for the echo of his steps to stop before turning to Hideki.

“Go take Takao.” His voice was cold and sharp, cutting, and the man jerked in surprise, his eyes wide open at the mention of his comrade, “Get Mochizuki to help you bring him to the palace dungeons.”

Ishida looked horrified, but when he saw Shougo’s expression all he could do was biting his tongue and lowering his eyes as he bowed and left to carry out his order.

 

***

 

Kise clenched his teeth, but for once he didn’t voice any complaint, not even when Seto chained him to the oar once more.

Obedient, he stared down at the wood in his hands as to not see the man’s sneering face and instead he focused on the figures in the grains he had grown far too familiar with as of lately. He could probably name them and feed them and invent stories about the secret affairs between them, but he chose against that, wondering briefly if perhaps he had already started losing his mind. Instead, he chose to focus on Aomine’s low grunts beside him and on Midorima’s stern figure sitting with his head held high at the other side of the little corridor between the two sides of oars.

He realized he didn’t know many things, at the moment. He didn’t know if Aomine would make it out of another oaring session like the last time, he didn’t know if Hanamiya would have appeared below deck once more to demand his revenge against Akashi, he didn’t know the littlest thing about Murasakibara if not that Midorima was elbowing him for something he had just said and he didn’t know why every time their eyes met Shintarou looked at him as if seeing a ghost hovering just above Ryouta’s shoulder. He didn’t know if he would live long enough to find an answer even to just one of those questions, but he knew one thing.

When Seto snapped the whip against the floor, right beside his leg, and Furuhashi did the same close by; when the splinters of wood punctured his skin and his back burned with the strain of his muscles pulling and moving under the still fresh wounds; when he heard the sound of waves hitting the side of the boat with raging fury; he knew.

He knew he would not go down without a fight.

 

***

 

Momoi was biting her lower lip in worry and Akashi was torn between being grateful and amazed for the sudden affection she had developed for him or feeling deeply offended by her lack of trust in his strength. Kuroko himself was frowning, his long tail bent under him as he ‘knelt’ beside the well the mermaid was floating into at her waist height.

Kagami grunted, grabbing his arm at the elbow with a swift movement as soon as Akashi was done slipping on the red waistcoat he had been given — a little big on him, but nobody cared at the moment —.

“I am pretty sure this is a bad idea,” he dared to say, picking up for the umpteenth time a discussion Seijuro had no intention of going back to. He had taken his decision and he wouldn’t change it, no matter how little support he would find.

“Nobody asked you, Taiga,” he retorted in fact, trying to snatch his arm free but failing as his feet slipped slightly on the slimy ground around the well.

Kagami rolled his eyes, but helped him sitting down on the well edge nonetheless. The water soaked Akashi’s boots immediately and weighted down his trousers, but the soldier ignored the sudden coldness to grip at the borders.

“If you want to die, I don’t care, you know? But if that’s not in your plans, then _this_ is a stupid idea.”

Akashi wondered briefly if Kagami’s part in the plan was so important that his accidental drowning could compromise the whole operation, but before he could finish to evaluate pros and cons a hand touched his neck. A very slimy and very webbed hand.

He shot Tetsuya an exasperated glare that was completely ignored.

“Kagami-kun has a point, Akashi-kun.” _Traitor._ “You’re still weak and your shoulder is broken. You should stay here with him and join us later with the ship.”

Seijuro shook his head, firm, but inside he was surprised. How could nobody understand? Kuroko and Kagami, who both had lost a friend for a very long time, should have been the first to sustain him, yet they seemed determined to treat him like another helpless relict of his ship’s sinking.

“I am _not_ staying behind when my friend and subordinate is in danger,” he stated then, voice firm as his eyes on Tetsuya’s azure ones. “Kise needs me.”

“Yeah, because you’re in any condition to do anything to help him beside getting killed, uh?” Akashi’s head snapped back, blinding fury in his eyes, but he was interrupted before he could say anything by Taiga’s shaking head. “No, okay, that was uncalled for. But still, you’re pretty much just a little sack of bruised bones and in the water you don’t even have the same advantage of these two-”

“I can breath just like them.”

“But you cannot fight.” 

Kuroko closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to regain the composure he had so clearly lost with his last sentence, and when he opened them again he had all the gazes on him, some appreciative and some definitely less. He didn’t let it stop him, though. 

“Akashi-kun, please,” he decided to try, moving his tail from under him to slip inside the well himself. “I know how you feel, but getting yourself in danger with no reason will not help Kise-kun.” Obviously, Seijuro opened his mouth to retort and he switched his tactic just in time to prevent his objection. “I thought the plan was for you to help me get Kagami-kun’s help and for _me_ to free everyone. Do you not trust me to keep my side of the deal?”

He was playing the trust card in a very unfair way and the betrayal shone clear in Seijuro’s eyes, so clear for a moment Kuroko thought he had managed to score a win against the other.

He knew he was wrong the moment Seijuro’s eyes ran from his face to another and betrayal was succeeded by comprehension and sympathy. He knew it even before he turned his head too and was confronted by a pair of honest pink irises.

“I think he should come with us, Tetsu-kun,” Momoi stated slowly, with righteous calmness, shifting her weight in the little space they had just enough to move beside Akashi and lay her hand on his leg in a physical display of her siding. “He has the right to.”

“It’s like suicide!” Kagami immediately tried to object, but a glare from the mermaid shut him up. Immediately after, Satsuki looked at Tetsuya agin and once more she looked steady and unmovable in her conviction.

“I am aware, just like _he is_ , of the dangers of such a choice,-” It was barely a murmur now, like she was whispering an heavy secret, or maybe it was just the burden on her shoulders, that bundle of feelings that chained her to Daiki no matter how many miles between them, and she looked so strong yet so tired, “-but refusing his involvement is just the same as denying all he has been through on that ship.” Momoi read something on his face, Tetsuya never knowing how she could take his mask apart that easily every time, and her lips stretched into a severe line. “If you won’t allow him to come, _I_ will carry his stupid wrecked body all the way from here to the battlefield. You know _me_ and you know I will.”

Gods he did; thus he sighed.

Kagami groaned, realizing he had been outnumbered, but finally let go of Akashi’s arm to instead help him slip into the well to his neck and help him stay afloat as Momoi moved beside him with a simple flick of her tail and wrapped her arms around his waist. Tetsuya touched his shoulder carefully to make sure the bandage would resist the travel, but was careful and made no attempt to pursue the matter any further.

Still, he exchanged a worried glance with Kagami that had Seijuro rolling his eyes.

“I am not a newborn child,” he pointed out quite spitefully, earning a giggle from Momoi, the umpteenth animalistic sound of complain from Taiga and an impassive stare from Kuroko.

“And yet, you quite like to behave like a five-year-old, don’t you, Akashi-kun?”

Seijuro deemed himself superior to the fight Kuroko was trying to pick and didn’t answer. Instead, he shot one last look at Kagami behind Momoi.

Taiga was a strong man, that much was clear; he had never seen him fighting, but both Tetsuya and Satsuki respected his skills highly so that must have accounted for something. Sitting on his heels at the edge of the well, scratching the back of his neck with a tired sigh, dressed up in simple black boots and trousers and a white shirt, he didn’t look half as fierce as Akashi was sure he could be, not even with the red bandana wrapped around his head. But still, his hand had yet to move from the handle of the sword at his waist. 

Once more, Seijuro didn’t have any choice but to entrust his and Kise’s lives to a stranger. He couldn’t say he liked the feeling, for as grateful as he was for the help he was receiving.

Because of that, he didn’t say anything, but simply nodded his head at the man, a silent sign to be explained at a later date, after a battle _they both_ had waited far too long for, already.

Momoi barely blew a low “You can thank me when everything is done” in his ear before her weight pushed him underwater, locked against her belly and chest. When he turned, salt water stinging in his eyes, he could only outline Kuroko’s white tail in the darkness of the well. The speed of their swimming knocked that little air out of his lungs, but this time he didn’t startle when he kept on breathing normally.

Behind Satsuki’s shoulder, the round window of the well opening and Taiga’s blurry figure grew so little they soon became nothing more than a lonely star in a pitchy black sky.

 

***

 

_“Eh? But that’s stupid,” he said, frowning and not liking the situation in the slightest._

_“Murasakibara!”_

_“If you don’t mind, Captain Okamura, I think I can deal with your subordinate on my own.”_

_“But…!”_

_“_ Please. _” There was no gentleness in that voice, only the firmness of an heavy name and even heavier experiences, laced with power, and Atsushi didn’t like it, but kept quiet all the same. “I wouldn’t want you to be bothered with a task you won’t be involved into anyway. I am sure you would very much rather waiting for us to talk about the details_ outside. _”_

_“…I’ll be right behind the door if you’ll need me.”_

_Atsushi didn’t like it._

_“So.” He lifted his eyes, shifting on his chair as he debated if taking another bite into the apple pie in front of him or waiting for the other man to finish talking from behind his crossed hands. “You think I am stupid?”_

_Definitely not liking it._

_“… didn’t say that.”_

_“So what is stupid, exactly, about all I said to you, Murasakibara?”_

_Atsushi opted to look around for a moment. The table before him was covered in all kinds of simple snacks, either salty or sweets, and the smell was irresistible for his growling stomach, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t sense the danger surrounding his interlocutor completely. He was the biggest man in his crew, the strongest also, and he had yet to meet anyone, in any situation, taller than him, yet the man sat comfortably in front of him, alone, in a the big room. He had a full plate in front of himself and he had picked at a bit of everything Atsushi had taken, as if to prove him nothing was poisoned, but didn’t seem interested in eating at all._

_Murasakibara didn’t like people who didn’t like food. They must have been evil._

_The man’s steel glare was piercing and uncomfortable._

_“Everything,” he still said, frowning and kind of pouting as he finally decided to go back to his pie. “Merfolks do not exist.”_

 

***

 

If the tunnel had been dark, the open sea wasn’t much better. Momoi and Tetsuya kept on swimming deeper and deeper, almost aiming vertically for the bottom of the ocean, and Akashi was too busy repeating himself that his head wasn’t going to burst open because of pressure, now that Tetsuya had kissed him, to bother with asking them. He had also almost resigned himself to the truth that they weren’t going to tell him anything. Tetsuya had been extremely secretive about the medallion now dangling from his neck and Satsuki had seemed quite reserved about the matter too.

He had no idea how long it took them, but when he saw sand a mere ten feet from him he knew it hadn’t been nearly enough to reach the depth of ocean. Merfolks’ tails sure were prodigious and left him in awe once more, but only for a little bit before his eyes lifted and met something tall and dark in front of them.

It looked like a tower of raw black rock, unpolished and sharp, covered in seaweeds and shells, and it stood as tall as a galleon’s mainmast. It was firm yet there was a big crack in the middle, from bottom to top, that seemed like the scar of an old wound, an open gash that had no more blood to lose.

Kuroko swam rapidly in its direction, but Satsuki hesitated a bit and her arms tightened slightly around Seijuro’s waist. When he turned to steal the truth from her face, though, she shook her head and with a powerful flick of her tail she sent them both almost directly beside Tetsuya once more. 

If the man had noticed the slip, he didn’t point it out, his eyes too focused on the structure before him. Akashi realized only in that moment that the expression he was wearing was not only of determination, but also of…excitement?, expectation? He wasn’t sure, it was nothing more than a wrinkle at the merman’s eyes corners.

Still, it bothered him someway. 

Once more, being unaware of the details made him nervous. He knew they were headed to the temple where Tetsuya would ask for the help of an old friend — from _another species_ , which was enough to make Seijuro’s skin crawl, because he wasn’t sure of how much he could handle to find out after the heavy blow of the merfolks already — to take down Hanamiya’s ship without casualties.

Or at least without losing Aomine, Kise, Midorima and Murasakibara. The _conditions_ to their deal.

_Just what kind of person will I be once this whole nightmare will be finished and I’ll get to look at myself in a mirror?_ , Akashi had wondered those words so many times already he could have probably carved them on his gravestone one day.

Unaware of his thoughts, Kuroko signaled Momoi to stop and instead swam closer to the crack in the rock. He laid his hand on a side of the gash almost gently before pecking inside.

Akashi froze when he heard him humming.

It took him a moment to realize that Tetsuya wasn’t properly singing and he was still perfectly in control of his own self, but his heart had already sped up instinctively, in fear and surprise and… Seijuro forced himself to shake those scattered bits of anticipation and curiosity out of his mind. He didn’t want to end up like Hanamiya, eternal slave to a spell that was far more unbreakable than any chain on Earth and beyond its borders.

The humming died down fast as Tetsuya retreated his head and swam backward just a little, but Akashi’s heart didn’t slow down and instead his eyes widened even more, his mouth gaping.

Kuroko was _smiling_.

Openly, uncaringly, honestly in a way Seijuro hadn’t believed he could be. Tetsuya stared at the crack in clear expectance, eyes shining playfully, joyous.

_What did you see?!_ , Akashi wanted to ask. _What is in there that made you like this?!_

But he didn’t ask, because he _heard_.

“KUROKO!”

Following the loud and dragged scream, from the crack a wild chestnut mop-head appeared first, followed shortly by a pair of bright eyes the same shade of durmast wood finely nestled into a cheerful face, with soft cheekbones and skin tanned in a golden shade by a playful sun. Strong arms propped up a naked torso with defined muscles and a round tattoo of the same incision of Tetsuya’s medallion on his left side, right above the lowest ribs, under the pectoral. The guy seemed around Kuroko’s age and Kuroko was also the only thing he had eyes for.

Tetsuya didn’t wait in swimming forcefully into the other man’s embrace and Akashi jerked.

Momoi lowered her gaze, regarding him with a surprised expression, but Seijuro pretended not to see. He had no idea why he had reacted the way he had and he honestly had no time to waste to investigate the matter. He was only there to save Kise, _nothing more_.

_Kise_., he repeated to himself once more. _Kise. Kise. Ryouta._

Kuroko detached himself from the stranger, but this one kept his hands firmly on his shoulders, forbidding the merman from swimming out of reach, and for some reason Akashi felt like it was difficult to breath. Maybe the kiss had an expiration time?, maybe the spell was losing its effectiveness?

His breath stopped completely, sucked in with a sudden inhale, when the guy pushed himself completely out of his hiding and his lower half was revealed.

Momoi simply blushed a bit, but Kuroko smiled, unperturbed.

“I missed you,” he said, his eyes never leaving the other’s face. “Ogiwara-kun.”

Akashi wondered if he was the only one who couldn’t tear his gaze from the black tentacles spreading from _Ogiwara_ ’s waist.

 

***

 

Midorima coughed and immediately spat when he felt a salty metallic taste in his mouth. He spied on Seto and felt guiltily glad that the man was too busy in snapping his whip above Aomine's head, laughing at his involuntary jerking, to notice him.

Without hesitation he ran his foot on the goblet of spit and blood and smeared it on the floor ‘till when it mixed with the other stains from sweat and lashes.

_I will make it out of this. I will make it out of this and go back. I’m not dying here._

 

***

 

“Tetsu-chan?”

“Kuroko?”

Akashi’s eyes snapped away from Ogiwara’s tentacles _— tentacles!, like an octopus’! —_ only when two other voices joined the group.

He was met with the sight of two otherworldly beautiful beings and he refused to feel uncomfortable and out of place when he realized that even them had no legs to show.

Emerging from the crack, at first was a man with long black hair, so long they reached the tip of his emerald fish-tail, all straight like silk when just produced by its worms, falling free behind his shoulders. He had green eyes, deep and gentle, in a chiseled face that could have been feminine if he wasn’t also completely bare-chested and perfectly muscled. He had shells tied in bracelets around his right arm, three inches under the shoulder, and his voice sounded more musical than the other one's. He had also used the familiar nickname with the easiness that came either from a long time intimacy or a terrifyingly open attitude.

The second figure was another man, but with a far colder demeanor. His grey hair floated around less than his comrade’s because sternly collected in a braid that shortened them to his waist-length, and his tail was just like all the other three, like a tropical fish’s, the end looking like a veil fluttering in the current, but shone slightly in a silver shade that reflected every little bit of light. He too had shells tied around his right arm, in the same position of the other merman, but also some others around his left wrist and what looked like shark teeth embedded in his hair.

Kuroko let go of Ogiwara to welcome the hug that came from the black-haired merman and outstretched his tail behind him to entangle it a bit with the gray-haired one, who was clearly trying to look indifferent but had unavoidably gravitated closer to the other three.

“Mayuzumi-san and Reo-san are the heads of our shoal.” Akashi didn’t jerk when Momoi whispered in his ear, but appreciated their slightly distanced position and the discreet help in understanding _what the fuck_ was happening. “Mayuzumi-san, the one with the silver tail, is the one who transformed us all. Tetsu-kun first, Reo-san shortly after and finally me when we thought Tetsu-kun had died. Technically, he is our chief, but he doesn’t really care about hierarchy. And anyway, Reo-san has him dancing in the palm of his hand.”

“I heard you, Momoi!”

Satsuki only giggled at the scolding, but still she swam closer to the group, Akashi staring at them from securely tucked with his back against her chest. The three strangers stared at him for a second before Momoi brought them both in a vertical position that allowed them to realize he wasn’t like them.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Kuroko!”

“Chihiro!” Mibuchi’s scolding came with a swat at the other’s shoulder and a reproachful expression. “Language.”

Akashi could see what Momoi had meant and by the way the both of them moved around each other, he wasn’t surprised when Mayuzumi scoffed but entwined his fingers with Reo’s all the same, just before moving his eyes once more on Seijuro.

“So?” he groaned, looking all pissed and annoyed. “Another one?”

“No.” Akashi felt Momoi jerk behind him at the sudden answer, but looked only at Tetsuya, surprised by the firmness in his voice and his clenched fists. “He is not to join our shoal. I was forced by the situation into giving him the first kiss, but there won’t be more.”

Akashi tried hard not to dwell on the feeling twisting his guts, but he managed to only because Mayuzumi groaned loudly at that. 

“Then what?!” he seemed to beg. If begging could be also annoying and fed-up, anyway. “He’s your new pet or something?”

“ _Chihiro._ ”

Kuroko rolled his eyes and Momoi huffed, but Mayuzumi and Reo just glared at each other, apparently unaware of their surroundings. Ogiwara looked kind of restless beside them and looked at Akashi who just kept on frowning.

He knew he was being kind of unfair, to be honest, but he still couldn’t look at the creature’s tentacles without feeling a bit of repulse. Part of him wondered why he didn’t felt the same way for fish tails, but he decided not to dwell on it. His list of _‘things to deal with later_ ’ was growing anyway.

Whatever kind of fight had been going on within the couple in power, it was over with Mayuzumi scoff and Reo’s shaking head. While the silver-haired merman let go of their joined hands, the brunet didn’t look bothered with it enough not to swim closer to Akashi, stopping gently just in front of his face.

Seijuro could see his gills pulsing gently on his neck, and the webbed protuberances in his ears’ places lifting lazily. He stared, those green eyes deep and welcoming, for a while before smiling, albeit a bit sadly.

“You look like you’ve been through quite some troubles,” he commented, perfectly at ease, and Akashi couldn’t help but lift a brow.

“Do I, now?” He feigned indifference. “I didn’t notice.”

Momoi actually snorted behind him, but he held Reo’s gaze firmly. The merman seemed surprised by his answer for a moment, but then opened up in a warm smile and turned to look at Tetsuya.

“I like him already,” he stated, as if Akashi wasn’t even there and earning himself a roll of eyes. “We can keep him, if you want.”

“Don’t go around making decisions on your own, Reo!”

_We’re not getting anywhere._ Seijuro was ready to interrupt, but he was preceded.

Tetsuya laid a hand on Ogiwara’s wrist and the gesture was enough to shut both Reo and Mayuzumi up, making their faces pale slightly. Shigehiro, on his part, looked nauseous for a lack of better term and Akashi felt confusion filling him when Reo swam back beside Chihiro to touch his shoulder slightly.

“Tetsuya…” Mayuzumi was starting to say, his voice firm and filled with refusal already, but this time it was Ogiwara who stopped him with a desperate look.

“Wait, I want to know what’s happening.”

Chihiro clicked his tongue, but his arm found Reo’s waist and there it stood in silent protectiveness. Momoi’s grip on Akashi also strengthened a bit, just as Kuroko turned to face Ogiwara alone and took a deep breath.

“I need you,” he started with and Seijuro pretended not to feel the pang of hurt those words sent through his chest.

Starting now, he himself was utterly _useless_.

 

***

 

Kagami didn’t slam his head into a beam because he was worried for that reckless idiot Kuroko, that scary woman Momoi and that snobbish bastard Akashi. He definitely didn’t, so his comrades’ laughters were out of place.

“Tone it down, Bakagami,” came his captain’s order, half bored and half exasperated. “We will be late if we have to waste time stitching your head back together.”

Kagami nodded and picked up again the barrel he was moving on board and that had fallen from his hands after the heavy impact of his forehead against wood, but he kept his mouth shut. The voices of the other members of the crew all around him made for a busy cozy nest and the hands patting his shoulders every now and then where comfy reminders that his life wasn’t how he used to be.

He lifted his eyes when the barrel was taken from his arms and he met firm grey irises softened by gentle wrinkles at the corner of the eyes. 

Scratch that, he met _one_ iris and there were wrinkles at the corner of _one_ eye. How could Tatsuya fight with his hair on half his face was a mystery he apparently hadn’t been entitled to unveil.

He frowned and his brother sighed, but turned and laid the barrel in its place and in the dim light of the storage below deck when he turned back to Kagami it was a bit difficult to decipher his expression. He laid his hands on Taiga’s shoulders and grabbed them tightly.

“It will be okay, Taiga,” he promised, nodding to himself. “We’ll be on their trail before they can even think about doing something stupid.”

Taiga grunted something vaguely assentive, but Tatsuya understood all the same and let him go back to his duty. 

Kagami knew he was lucky to have his brother with him. They had always been together, Taiga and Tatsuya, since they were new borns and then kids pickpocketing people down at the port; and even later on, when Himuro had become a beauty and the mind of their duo, planning frauds and smooth talking people into whatever he wanted to while Kagami was the muscles that showed up if anything went wrong. He had always known his brother could have left him behind whenever he wanted, but Tatsuya had never done it, not even when Taiga had passed the limit and joined the pirate crew of Seirin. Back then, Himuro had been furious and tried to talk him out of it for weeks before one day popping up at the docks and jumping on board, muttering about little brothers and stupidity.

So, yes, Kagami was glad to have Himuro with him, so glad that he let him believe his words had been reassuring enough.

After all, how exactly was he supposed to point out that Kuroko had already thought about something extremely stupid?

 

***

 

Kissing was bad. It was a simple rule and Ogiwara couldn’t believe Kuroko had disregarded it, _again_.

When it was about Momoi, drowning and helpless, or Reo, thrown down a cliff with a witchcraft charge that weighted even more than the stone tied around his neck, Shigehiro could understand. All the marine deities could testify, Kuroko had never been able to abandon anyone who was in danger. His heart was so big it could have held the water from all the seven seas.

But this new guy, Akashi… It stirred something in Ogiwara’s guts. Sure, he was clearly hurt — Shigehiro had eyes, he could see the bandages and the bruises — but helpless? No, those shining red eyes weren’t the ones of someone who didn’t have anything left, someone on the verge of giving up. Those blazing irises talked about plans and strength, the patient wait of a predator hiding within the coral, ready to go for the kill. And the brown-haired creature wasn’t sure about who exactly was the prey.

Kuroko had explained the whole story to him in hurried whispers, standing far too close to him for it to be a simple coincidence, and he had never moved his eyes, not even on Reo or Chihiro. It was bad news, Ogiwara already knew that. And when Tetsuya finished talking about the friends he needed to help, the ones he wanted to help escaping, he also knew where it was going.

_No, please, no_ , he found himself thinking desperately, but Kuroko’s hands caressed his side and he knew that, yes, that was exactly what he was being asked.

“Kuroko-,” he tried, but his voice trailed off when he saw his friend’s eyes.

He made the mistake to look for Akashi’s face, as if it could help him decide, and met instead Momoi’s face. The soft lines, the gentle bent of her chin, the long neck, the plump lips slightly opened in worry and those eyes, big and warm and _desperate._ He was immediately done for, the very second those pink quartzes embraced him and he sighed.

Ogiwara wasn’t a merman. He descended for an equally olden ancestry, the Sea Wizards, a group of creatures sharing half a squid’s body who lived in the depth of the sea, controlling currents and maintaining the balance of the oceans. Centuries ago, when humans had started to colonize the waters too, his race had moved toward the surface, trying to impede the new comers from extending their power. They failed, some being captured and some being killed, no matter the shape they took. They were a strong race, but time took its toll on them and they were so scattered around the seas that they rarely managed to procreat and protect their own species, especially when so many others were at risk. Time passed and now Shigeiro was, if not the last, one of the few survivors of his own kind; and he had no idea of eventual others’ whereabouts.

Kuroko had been the one to break his solitude, unsurprisingly. When it was just him and Mayuzumi, decades and decades ago, Tetsuya had loved to wander around, exploring the new world that his past life as the young prince of a snowy extinct clan had forbidden him. 

They would spend days talking and Ogiwara would listen endlessly to his friend’s stories about his tribe’s struggle to protect itself from the cold and how their land gods would ask for sacrifices every now and then to help them pass the winter, about how falling in the water was simply a death sentence and how he had felt no fear but just desperation when he had been chosen to jump in the fjords to appease those deities, the sounds of the chants he was repeating in his mind as a prayer for his people’s safety and of his parent’s cries behind him as he walked to the end of the wooden bridge above the icy waters, the cold and finally Mayuzumi’s embrace around his waist.

_“My tribe has been long gone now,”_ he told him one day, his eyes raising to the sky above the surface, so many miles higher, _“Sometimes I wonder if it’s because I didn’t die on that day.”_

Ogiwara had learnt with time that Tetsuya’s regret could not be erased, just like his need to save everyone he came across to. Sometimes he thought to ask if it was because of his people, if he was trying to make amend in some convoluted way, but in the end he had never dared to open his mouth.

Now, he looked at his friend once more and he sighed.

“I didn’t give you that much power to take it back,” he simply stated, forcing an hesitant smile to show up on his lips. “If you think this is the right thing to do, you know I’ll help you.” He sneaked a look at Momoi, whose face was filled with relief and gratefulness now, and he gulped. “Just promise me you’ll stop me as soon as I lose control. The risk of your friends getting killed in the chaos is far too high to be worth considering.”

“What does this mean?!” but Akashi’s voice was ignored as Kuroko nodded solemnly.

“I swear on my life, Ogiwara-kun,” he declared, his face set into a firm frown, the very picture of stubbornness, and Shigehiro couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.

His hand went to the merman’s hair on its own, ruffling them fondly even as the other pulled away with an accusing grimace, his hands up to protect his now wild head.

Ogiwara turned to face Kuroko completely and he looked down at his tattoo for a second before addressing his friend with a nervous smile and a simple: “We should hurry up, right? Your friends have been waiting long enough.”

For a moment, Tetsuya hesitated. He was fully aware of how much Shigehiro hated what he was asking now, but in the end he smiled sadly, feeling a pang of hurt clenching his heart. He had always been a coward and an hypocrite, hadn’t he?

So he slipped the medallion from around his neck and pressed its mark on his friend’s side, right upon the ink, and he kept on pushing on it even when Ogiwara’s shrilling scream pierced through his eardrums.

“Thank you,” he whispered, even if he knew the other was already too far gone to hear him.

He lifted his eyes and saw him growing.

 

***

 

_“I, too, am the last of my dynasty,” he had revealed one day._

_Kuroko had moved his eyes down, back to their little den inside the rock. In the coziness of the light reflecting into the gems protruding from the walls, thousands of rainbow shades fell on his skin, white and almost colorless from the cold country he came from and from the time spent so far from the surface, and his teal hair fell lazily around him, tied yet a bit rebellious, hugging his waist and shoulders. His irises had the same shade of the sky he was so desperate to look up to._

_Tetsuya stared, silent, for so long Ogiwara wasn’t sure he had been right in speaking up. It took the merman some moments to turn and swim silently closer to the Wizard, resting his crossed arms on top of the rock the other was sitting on._

_“Are you lonely?” he asked and Shigehiro chuckled a bit. Kuroko was just simple as that, straightforward and honest, blunt to the point of tactlessness._

_“Not really.” The Wizard shifted his weight to rest on his elbow, face in his hands, and stare down at Tetsuya while making weird expression and puckering his cheeks. “I’ve got you now, after all,” he frowned. “And Mayuzumi, I guess. In a way.” Kuroko deadpanned at him. “I a very_ weird _way.”_

_The merman rolled his eyes, one the highest forms of expression one could get from him, and Ogiwara smiled, a bit crookedly because of his hands._

_“You don’t feel…different?” Kuroko asked and Shigehiro frowned because something, maybe the twitch of the tail or the drop in his voice, seemed to tell him the other wasn’t talking about him, or at lest not at all. “You’re not part of the shoal, after all. Not technically.” His eyes shone. “One day, we could just leave, migrate, and you’d be alone again.”_

_Ogiwara had known Kuroko for a while, by now. Months that tasted like centuries, nights of nightmares and days of curious explorations, had built up a special kind of trust between them, one that was made of steel and coral and nacre. But while their bond was strong, Tetsuya was also frail, especially in his self-confidence. He was terrified of being left alone and Shigehiro just wanted to change that._

_He didn’t think much about that, but at the same time he didn’t really need to. Kuroko was a good person, and that was honestly enough for Ogiwara to pick him, especially within his_ huge _list of friends he could entitle with the great honor of the medallion. Really, it was either him or Chihiro and there was no trace of an eventual future addition anytime soon._

_He let a hand travel up to his chest and when his fingers met the cold hardness of gold he didn’t hesitate grabbing it and taking it off. When he held it up, Kuroko looked a it blinking slowly. Ogiwara smiled when those azure irises fell on the tattoo on his side._

_“Did you know this place was a temple?” he asked casually, perfectly aware that Tetsuya was eyeing him attentively. “My people used it as a shelter for all the sea creatures that needed their help. And this-,” He pushed the medallion closer and Kuroko picked it with care, eyeing it with clear curiosity but his usual blank face, “-is the key to a great power that was used to restore the balance, either delivering punishments or dealing with problems.”_

_The frown digging the forehead of the young merman was adorable and Ogiwara smiled again, completely at ease despite the heavy moment._

_He used to picture the moment he would use his power definitely differently, but even that way was okay. It felt right, to share that chance with Tetsuya._

_“I want you to keep it.”_

_As predictable, Kuroko’s eyes went wide. “No, Ogiwara-kun, I can’t-…!”_

_“You think your gods are angry at you, right?” Shigehiro interrupted him and he saw the way Tetsuya flinched, the obvious break in his resolve cracked open, but he went on anyway with an encouraging smile playing on his lips. “These powers are on par of any gods. If you keep this, I’m sure yours won’t be able to hurt you or those you care for anymore.”_

_Ogiwara chose the wrong words, he saw it playing in Tetsuya’s irises, and his smile faltered as those words —_ It’s too late now, I should have protected them sooner, I’ve got nobody left that my gods may pour their wrath on — _played in his mind as if said out loud, but Kuroko was special, he had always been, and his grip on the medallion tightened. He cradled it to his chest like it was his most prized possession and he let go of his grip on the rock to swim upward a bit, moving to sit on it. He looked down on Ogiwara with eyes a bit too lucid and he attempted a smile that would have made half the marine monsters ran away for how forced and… honestly creeping it was._

_“A god’s powers?” he asked, a fake mockery in his voice. “That’s quite a birthday present, Ogiwara-kun.”_

_They both chuckled, Shigehiro moving to sit mirroring his friend, and when they stopped he helped the merman to slip the medallion on._

_“Yeah, I know. It will be difficult to top it, next year.”_

_This time Kuroko jabbed him in the ribs — he clearly had a low threshold for humor — and doing so his fingers caressed the tattoo. When Ogiwara was done whimpering pathetically, the merman’s hand was still on the ink mark._

_Tetsuya stood, touching and thinking, his other hand caressing the medallion instead, and when he finally let go he did so taking a deep breath._

_“So,-” but he seemed to be trying to change the topic, or at least to shift it a bit, just enough to take himself out of it, “-what can you do with these powers?”_

_Ogiwara arched a brow, clearly stating that the talk was all but ended, but he shook his head and sighed. Being friends with Tetsuya also meant knowing when to give up and allowing him some space._

_“Shapeshifting.” Kuroko raised a brow, but Shigehiro allowed himself just a smug smile. “This kind of magic allow us to shift into the shape of the strongest creature of all oceans, just as strong as — if not stronger than — any god you can find of earth.”_

_Kuroko’s eyes shone with mild interest, but when Ogiwara didn’t seem ready to add anything he apparently considered not pursuing the topic. But in the end, his curious nature took the best of him. Not without a sigh._

_“Pray tell me, Ogiwara-kun,-” he asked, his voice laced with exasperation and superiority. His face stood blank, though, “-which kind of creature can you turn into?”_

_Shigehiro’s brown eyes shone, his blood suddenly pumping and his heart beating fast with the usual excitement that came from envisioning such a great raw power._

_“The Kraken.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can't understand how excited I am for the last bit of this chapter. I've been waiting to add Ogiwara as the Kraken since the very beginning of this story and now he's here! Isn't he adorable?! Well, in his Kraken form a little less, but still...
> 
> Also, Kuroko's Tragic Backstory™ is here, did you notice? I really concentrated it in a few lines, but basically he was the price of a Random Northern Tribe and he was chosen as a sacrifice for the gods to spare his people from winter. He survived because when he jumped in the frozen waters Mayuzumi caught him and transformed him in a merman, but it all happened centuries ago and slowly but inevitably his tribe had gone extinct, so he's sure it was his fault for surviving the sacrifice. Happiness?, what is that?, I've never heard of it before.
> 
> Ogiwara's Tragic Backstory™ is also short but hopefully intense. He's now basically the only Sea Wizard (There's a Sea Witch in Andersen's and Disney's "The Little Mermaid"? And she's half octopus? Oh, what a funny coincidence!) left and the balance of the oceans depends from him. Cool.
> 
> Hey, hey, hey, did you notice Midorima? Keep Midorima in mind. Spitting blood is not a good things, is it? And Murasakibara could be one of the few characters who doesn't have a Tragic Backstory™, he has just a simple Backstory™ but I'm still gonna tell you. With time and chapters. I also know I've been neglecting Aomine a bit in this chapter, really, but his and Momoi's Tragic Backstory™ took two/three chapters already, they can stay put in a side for a little bit.
> 
> Nijimura is my hero and I think it's kind of clear. He cares for Akashi an whole lot, as you can see. Come and save your kids, Rainbow Emperor. And kick Haizaki's ass. He deserves it.
> 
> Thaaaaat said, I guess that's all? Next chapter the battle should finally start (will, I hope) so things will be definitely hectic. Look forward for that!
> 
> As always, feel free to scream at me on my Tumblr!
> 
> See you,
> 
> Agap


	8. Part VIII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe they get saved. Maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *WARNING: I haven't had the chance to edit as I wanted to while posting, I will make another check tomorrow so forgive me for any eventual mistake, please. Thank you*

 

**Through Gold and Iron Chains**

**Part VIII**

 

Akashi raised his arms to protect his face when the wave of moved water hit them, but Momoi’s body was as firm as a rock behind him and they weren’t swept away. When everything finally calmed down and he got to open his eyes again, there was nobody left.

He lifted his gaze as he was embraced by darkness and he gaped, amazed and shocked, at the enormous creature swimming terrifyingly fast toward the surface. It was dark blue but its size was difficult to determine as it grew littler with distance, his tentacles hitting water powerfully enough to push the whole body to the surface faster than the merfolks themselves.

Kuroko, Mibuchi and Mayuzumi were following it, left behind a bit more by the second, and by the time Momoi reacted enough to follow them despite the plus weight in her hands, the others looked like barely shaped figures fading fast in the distance.

“This ain’t gonna be pretty,” she let slip out of her tiny lips, very Aomine-ly, but Akashi could only grit his teeth and agree with her.

 

***

 

First came the sound, a booming roar that shook the whole ship and a hundred hearts. It seemed like a growl from the depths of a cave, mixed with the striking screech of metal sliding against other metal, swords clashing as the background noise of a battlefield.

Second came fear.

“What was that?!”

“What the hell was that?!”

“A thunder?! Are getting into a storm?!”

“All quiet, you pieces of shit!”

“What was th-!”

Only in third came the impact. The three standing pirates were sent flying when everything trembled violently. Hara was slammed against the stairs and didn’t get up again; Seto fumbled on the ground in the middle of the corridor. Furuhashi fell on Wakamatsu and the man was one step from taking the chance and strangling him with the chain between his wrists, but didn’t had the time.

With a screeching sound, like a desperate animal skinned alive, the ship opened. _In. Two_.

Kise watched in terror the wood snapping open to reveal the red sky of sunset and a tormented sea and a huge _eye_. Screams filled the air as the big pitchy-black globe came closer to the crack and rolled, taking in everything it could see, before pulling back. Another noise, like a mixture of a roar and a bellow, rose up to the sky and almost broke their eardrums. Gravity suddenly changed, forcing them all harshly against the floor.

“It’s lifting us up!” Aomine roared, pushing the oar out of its hole and freeing their chains from around it to watch out of the little opening. He bleached when he saw what was outside. Kise gulped at his low “Sweet Goddess of Oceans”, but crawled closer to him, pulling at the restraints tying him to the others, and peeked out as the ship kept going higher.

He felt his heart stop for a second. Whatever it was, it looked like a huge squid; a single tentacle as wide as the height of a ship from the lowest point of the keel to the highest of the mainmast, the head easily thrice as tall as the Royal Palace in Rakuzan. It was of a dark blue shade, like sea at the horizon, and was covered in seaweed and shellfishes. Its eyes had no white sclera, they were pure spheres of blackness and if it had a mouth it wasn’t visible, nor Kise wanted to have anything to do with it.

He had been infected with Akashi’s rationality and ended up believing that things as sea monsters and curses and merfolks and whatever didn’t exists. The thought made him laugh nervously, earning him a shocked and worried look from Aomine.

“Oi,” he tried to say, but if he had planned to finish the sentence he never got around that.

With popping sounds, the crack became the greatness of void and the ship became _two halves._ People screamed everywhere when those in the middle rows fell, Seto first of all and Furuhashi closely behind, and the chains trying the prisoners together all together pulled at everyone. 

Aomine cursed, but planted his feet against a protruding beam of the ship skeleton and grabbed onto the chains. His muscles tensed as he tried to sustain the weight of the falling others. Kise and Midorima and Murasakibara and all the others imitated him, but with the guys on the other half doing the same and the two parts being pulled further and further away, it was just a matter of time.

Sakurai lost his footing and was pulled to dangle from the tensing chain. He yelled in pain as his whole body was hosted up by the rings around his wrists and blood dripped down his arms, all the way to his elbows and shoulders. He screamed again when it dripped on his face.

“HOLD ON!” Kise could hear the begging note in his own voice, but the stubbornness that was his main trait didn’t allow him to give up yet. He had tears stinging in his eyes from the effort and the fear and all those screams, but he clenched his teeth.

Midorima to his side was trembling. He had lost his glasses somewhere, but his sight seemed to be getting out of focus from other reasons completely. His hands were going numb and slipping on the chain the more blood poured from the cuts on his wrists. Everything was muffled to him, every voice seemed barely a murmur, and for short but terrifying moments he couldn’t even remember what had happened to lead them in that very moment. 

The chain slipped away from his fingers for a second, so many inches lost, and he had no idea how long they had been doing that. It seemed like a lifetime, but was probably barely a few seconds. An arm encircled his waist, holding him up when his knees buckled and gave up, all his energies on keeping his grip on the chain, but he barely heard Murasakibara calling his name right into his ears.

Atsushi gulped when Shintarou went slack against him, completely out cold but burning with fever, and he kneeled on the precarious floor while trying to hold onto the chain still and to ignore the wind that came in howling from the opening.

Ten seconds, he had counted them. That had been how long they held onto each other, like hopeful children seeing a solution where clearly stood only disappointment and pain. They had felt like hours. Blue filled the crack in between the two halves of the ship and for a moment the darkness was absolute, but then the tentacle kept on moving, _upward._

There was a moment of relax when the pressure of the dangling bodies was relieved from the muscles of those still standing. Only for a second, though, before a powerful tug pulled them all forward and lying on their stomaches.

“No-” Aomine’s words fell into a pained growl when his body was dragged forward, the chain dangling from both sides of the tentacle now wrapping around it. “It’s trying to take us!”

His words fell on deaf ears as Murasakibara and Midorima fell over the edge, but Kise roared.

_Not yet!_ , he didn’t really think, but he wrapped their shared chain at his wrists'  height around a metal ring on the floor, used to keep still four heavy wares under a net, and for good measures he put his foot to keep it there. He cried in pain when the tug reached them and the force dug the metal in his flesh, opening long wounds that dyed his hands in red, but it lasted only a moment.

The old chain, rusted by sweat and blood for months, snapped and both Kise and Aomine, just behind him, fell backward. 

They rolled a few meters before their bodies hit the fallen oars and benches, sending bruising pain to their shocked brains. When Kise managed to shake the feeling away just enough to push himself on his elbow and look back, the last bodies attached to the chain were being pulled upward. Gasping, he tried to reach the hole of a oar and to look outside, but in the chaos of tentacles and waves and the huge creature he didn’t manage to understand what was happening.

“Is that thing gonna eat them?!” he yelled as he felt Aomine pulling himself closer to him, defying the gravity of the reclining half ship, but when he turned he bleached at the huge splint of wood protruding from the pirate’s left leg.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know?!” Daiki still screamed back, looking around to find something, uncaring of his own injury, only to realize that they were alone now, even the guards swept away who knew when and where. “We need to get out of here before it decides to crush us!”

“We must be at least thirty feet from the water, we can’t just jump off!”

“You got a better idea?!”

Kise shook the chains in Daiki’s face. While the part holding his wrists together had broken, he still had rings around them and his ankles were still tied together; not to mention Aomine’s limbs were all still connected in pairs. “And how do you plan to swim with these on, uh?!”

“I don’t _know_!”

“Then-!”

They both startled when their half ship was shaken up and down in a sudden movement of the tentacle holding them. Kise bit his lower lip to bleeding, while Aomine hissed as his stomach hit the floor again. As sudden as it had come, the movement ceased, but when they both turned to see what was happening, they froze at seeing someone trying to pull themselves from the higher floor to theirs, now striving as if to climb a hill.

A blur of movement and the man jumped and landed barely a few steps from them. His clothes were not a prisoner’s.

“Shit.” Aomine grabbed Kise, managed to pull him behind him just as the pirate lifted his eyes and saw them.

“ _You!_ ” he roared, mindless fury raging in his eyes. 

Before they could react, Hanamiya drew his gun on them and pulled the trigger with an inhuman snarl.

 

***

 

Akashi took a deep breath of air instinctively when his and Momoi’s heads broke the water surface, but he inhaled again sharply and for an whole different reason when his eyes caught what was around him.

Ogiwara’s tentacles kept on hitting the water, simulating a storm that had Satsuki gritting her teeth to keep them still and afloat, and the air was filled with screams and yells. The pirate ship, broken in two, was hold up in the air by two tentacles and a third one shook around the long chain that held all the prisoners. The smell of salt, wood and blood was nauseating even in the middle of the open ocean, and the sky seemed to be bleeding too, the sun disappearing fast under the line of the horizon.

Shigehiro screamed again, a screeching sound that made Akashi cringe, and Momoi howled something back before turning to look around.

Her eyes widened and she pointed closer to the Kraken. “There! Lifeboats!”

Akashi followed her gaze and indeed the lifeboats of the ship had fallen loose and were floating around in the chaos, but only two of them. A piece of a third was sinking nearby and the fourth was nowhere to be seen.

“It’s not enough for all the men!” he yelled back at her as the mermaid was already swimming closer, “We need more!”

“You’ll have to make do!” She pulled him on her shoulder just for a second before throwing him on one of the boats, “We’ll find debris to build a raft with!”

“That’s not the only—!” He cursed, loudly, when a tentacle hit the water close to them, sending a wave of water to invest them both, and he coughed water as he grabbed the rope hanging from a side of the boat beside his, “We’ll need the keys for the chains! If they fall into the water as they are, they’ll all end up drowning!”

Another wave shook the boats as Akashi was still tying them together, making him hiss in pain as his injured arm holding the rope took the worst of the tugging force, but Momoi helped him keeping them together.

“Who has the keys?!” she yelled over another scream of the Kraken.

“The captain! Hanamiya! He is…!”

“I’ll find him.” Both Akashi and Momoi startled as someone helped them pull the boats together, but Kuroko looked scarily impassive in the middle of the carnage.

His face was pale to the point it seemed to gleam a bit, teal strands attached to his skin, and his eyes were big yet somehow empty. His voice hadn’t as much as trembled as he had spoken and soon enough Reo and Mayuzumi were behind him, but he didn’t acknowledge them.

“We’ll help with the raft while you search for the keys,” Mibuchi added, pushing Momoi slightly aside, “You go help him, those humans won’t last long.”

Akashi bit his tongue as he heard those words, but his hands didn’t faltered — not even the injured one — and kept on tying knots to secure the two boats together. Reo pushed the door of some kind of wardrobe closer and handed him pieces of rope to add it to the structure.

“Will we?” Mayuzumi seemed just as unfazed as Kuroko, but he hurried up in obeying his lover under the others’ glares.

Kuroko sent a lingering look to the screaming creature, _his friend_ , before meeting Akashi’s eyes once again. Their promise shone bright in his irises for a second; the following one he was looking at Momoi, as empty as before. “Let’s go.”

She didn’t need to be told twice and they vanished with their tails barely visible under the water surface.

Akashi stole a glance and the chain of prisoners, still high in the air, but wasted no time in praying and instead tied the lid of a wooden crate to his boat.

 

***

 

Hanamiya cursed, furious, when the gun refused to shot. Wet as it was, it came as no surprise, but still Kise’s heart was beating hard in his ears. 

Aomine cursed again, under his breath, in relief, but his posture stood guarded, on his knee with his sane leg ready to push him on his feet and his hands on the floor to give him an additional push. His eyes were on Hanamiya, refusing to leave him, but his focus shifted continuously from him to Ryouta behind him.

“To Hell with this!” the captain shouted, throwing the weapon away to draw his sword instead.

He seemed completely out of his mind, charging the two prisoners with a scream. He didn’t pay attention minimally to the monster outside, to his men that were probably all dead already or to the ship falling to pieces; his eyes were shining and reddened, capillaries broken in the white sclera. 

Aomine reacted instinctively when the sword fell on him and he lifted his wrists to parry it with the chain binding his wrists. Burning sparks accompanied the metals clashing and they burned his face just enough to make him hiss. His whole body tensed in the effort to keep the blade from cutting straight into his skull, but Hanamiya kept on pressing down, made stronger by his standing position, and he couldn’t get up. The pulsing in his leg was growing unbearable now; he wouldn’t be able to hold on for long.

Makoto probably noticed too, because he lifted his word again just to smash it down a second time. Aomine lost some space and the chain dug in his forehead before he managed to push it higher again.

“I’ll kill you!” Hanamiya didn’t seem to be aware of whom he was talking to, his eyes were wide and his pupils almost took over the whole irises, as if he were drunk or drugged. He lifted his sword again. “I’ll _kill you!_ ”

Daiki clenched his teeth, readying himself for the impact, but it never came.

Makoto’s blade found a stud of wood, a splinter of oar as long as a human arm, and got stuck in it for a moment, before Kise’s body pushed in and sent the captain flying on his back.

“OI!” Aomine tried, but Kise didn’t seem to ear him as he pointed his improvised weapon at the pirate.

Hanamiya grunted, standing up. Outside the shell of ship they were in, there were still screams and roaring of waves and booms of the tentacles hitting water, but he couldn’t care less about it or about what that octopus was going to do with them. All he could see was the soldier’s expression.

Kise’s face was cold. All form of teasing or cheerfulness replaced by a frigid mask that made his eyes shone in pure gold, as sharp as a lynx’s. His perfect beauty had been twisted and while it still existed, somewhere, it seemed impossible to see now: there was nothing pretty in a war machine, and the soldier looked no different from a chiseled cannon or a gun; just as deadly and expensive. There was blood dripping from his split lower lip and his hair were sticking to his face looking brownish for the water, but the snarl his mouth was twisted in was unmistakable.

Makoto smiled at the death promise it held.

“Come at me, princess,” he hissed, but instead jumped forward himself. He engaged Ryouta’s piece of wood easily, but the man maneuvered it like a real sword, uncaring of its minor resistance, and, hell, he was _good_.

Kise was mindful of the chain tying his ankles together and to Aomine’s, but as long as the pirate stood on the floor behind him he could work with that little space he had. Hanamiya was irrational and so was his fencing, lead by hatred and instinct alone, whereas Ryouta had been training his swordsmanship for years with the best master the Royal Palace had. And the gods knew Kasamatsu would kick his ass _hard_ if he were to lose his focus even just for a second.

Keeping Makoto at bay with a real sword would have been an easy feat, but for as much as he could parry and dodge his hits even with wood, he couldn’t fall into any strength competition that could break his weapon, nor he could be sure that his attacks, even reaching their target, would make any real damage without a real blade. 

He manage to pierce the pirate shoulder with a lunge, there were Akashi himself had wounded him already, and Hanamiya retreated a couple of steps with a howl of pain. It would have been the perfect moment to press him, but Aomine was still holding him back, and Kise growled, a deep guttural sound that had Makoto’s eyes back on him fill with shock.

Kise had never been a real doll, after all. A puma, that suited him far better.

Hanamiya blinked once before opening up in a creepy smile, his teeth showing as he taunted. “That wasn’t majestic at all, _princess_.”

“Come back here and I’ll show you majestic,” Kise barked back, unfazed, but he man did obey and jumped back on him.

This time, Ryouta had to sustain the assault by crossing their weapons and the blade stuck into the wood once more, making him cuss as he realized his opponent had all the intentions to push his way through it to slit his throat. The words flowing out of his mouth would have put to shame Hanamiya’s crew, but the captain seemed too out of himself to even realize what profanities were being spat in his face.

The splinters dug themselves in Kise’s fingers as he tried to fix his grip on his weapon and the wood creaked pitifully under the pressure of the blade embedding itself deeper and deeper. The ship was inclined a bit more in Makoto’s favor and his sword slipped inside its furrow. The blade reached Kise’s skin and sliced through his right eyebrow, blood spilling on his eye, before he managed to bend backward at his waist to avoid having his face split open. 

Hanamiya grinned. “Any last words?”

“Sorry, we don’t have time to chat.”

Kise yelped when, together with the voice from behind him, came something heavy to slam into the back of his knees, a big round shape that made him lose his balance and fall on his back. He lifted his gaze to see what had happened, but he managed to open only one eye, the other forced close by the blood from his injury, and he could only catch sight of Hanamiya falling after him with the blade still in his hand briefly.

He rolled to a side, on his stomach, just barely in time to avoid the sword. There was a yelp and a scream and when he raised his head Makoto had rolled several steps closer to the tail of the ship. He seemed to have hit something heavy in his fall because he cursed with a hand on his hip as he tried to stand up, just to fail miserably.

Kise felt no pity, and instead turned to see Aomine still on his back on the floor, eyeing Hanamiya with distaste.

“Did you just _trip me_?!” he screeched, because if they were probably going to die soon anyway eaten by a big ass squid he wanted to at least go knowing whom he could trust!

Daiki ignored him, instead, and grabbed him by the arm and pulled him closer to the wall. Kise was ready to yell at him again, but then he realized the pirate was trying to use him as a crutch to get back on his feet, his other hand gripping on a bean to keep them from slipping toward the bottom of the ship, and shut his mouth. The splinter in his leg must have lacerate the muscle because even with his help Aomine could barely stand and kept on trembling continuously. He was pale and sweating buckets; no good signs at all, but he still never moved his eyes from Hanamiya.

The captain was wobbling on his feet with his back against the wall, but he looked still too much confused to be of any danger, to Ryouta.

The ship trembled, hitting something, and so did they. Kise found himself grabbing a fistful of the shirt on Aomine’s chest, his other arm circling the pirate’s waist as one of the man’s was slumped around his shoulders. 

He had no time to waste in being embarrassed when he noticed water pouring in from some of the oar holes. Fast it filled the below deck, reaching Hanamiya’s waist in a handful of seconds.

“Shit, it put us back down!” he cursed, but his voice was more scared than furious now. Daiki joined his cussing for a second, his eyes flickering all over to look for an escape route that wouldn’t get their chained asses at the bottom of the ocean.

All he saw were the boxes tied to the handle Kise had used to break their chains. He didn’t like the way they trembled under pressure, weighting on their ropes. Even their bodies were slipping closer to the bottom of the ship.

“I’m sorry…” They jerked, immediately turning at the sound of Hanamiya’s voice, but the captain had his head hung low, water at his mid trunk now. He looked battered and defeated, sinking with his ship as he should have, as every captain should. “I didn’t mean to… I… I am…”

But then he was suddenly laughing, loudly. Kise jerked at the change.

“As if I would ever say something like that, idiots!” The scream filled the air, together with the splashing sounds of the pirate’s hands grabbing on fallen pieces of benches or oars to pull himself upward, against gravity. His eyes  were reddened and crazy, as he stared at them. “I will kill you!”

Daiki cringed. His hand tightened instinctively the grip on Ryouta’s shoulders as he felt him shift, as if ready to attack, _the idiot_. “Fuck you, Hanamiya!”

The ship trembled again and its sinking stopped abruptly. The wood creaked under the pressure of something outside, something circling them all, squeezing.

_It’ll crush us!_ , Kise realized, eyes widened as he bent his knees, Aomine following closely, to try to keep some balance, but trembling as the effort strained his injured leg. Hanamiya kept on laughing, uncaring or maybe completely unaware of what was happening all around him.

The creature screeched again, this time in a long pitched sound that held its metallic note but seemed somehow whiny. It lasted for seconds that left the humans with whistling ears, but when it stopped the silence didn’t come.

Wood exploded right beside Hanamiya and splinters showered both Kise and Aomine, scratching their arms as they tried to protect their faces. The tip of a tentacle hit furiously around the hole it had just pierced. Makoto screamed, but wasn’t touched and the thing retreated. The opening it left was like a window on the underwater, but still the piece of ship didn’t sink.

_Why is it keeping us afloat?!_ , Kise growled to himself, trying to hold onto the plain surface of the floor under his feet. His body was trembling with the effort not to slip closer to Makoto, and now the sight of the hole and the occasional flicker of a tentacle in the distance made him ever more desperate.

Hanamiya thought the same because he grabbed onto the things fallen around him and tried to resume his climbing, out of the water and closer to them. He wasn’t laughing anymore, but fear and rage were coming back the more he looked at Kise.

It was his fault, after all. His and that bastard Akashi’s. It was their fucking fault all of this happened, nothing had ever interfered with his plans before they were taken aboard and now he didn’t even have his Tetsuya anymore!

_Tetsuya!_ He grabbed onto an upturned bench and crawled against the pendency of the floor, his fingernails bleeding as he didn’t care at all.  _Tetsuya!_

“You took him from me!” he yelled, ignoring how Kise was shifting to prepare to kick him in the face. Both of them had lost their weapons now so it was down to hand to hand. “You took Tetsuya from me!”

“Are you fucking crazy?!” Aomine growled, but the ship creaked again and his arm protested, still holding both him and Kise anchored to the protruding bean. He wasn’t sure how longer he could resist, especially with his leg pulsing more painfully by the second. “Tetsu wasn’t…!”

“Tetsuya is mine!” Hanamiya slammed his fist on the wood, the pitchy black hair sticking wet to his face to draw a terrifying web on his pale skin, deign lace to frame his blazing eyes. “Give him back to me! Tetsuya! TETSUYA!”

“ _Hanamiya._ ”

 

***

 

Akashi coughed when a wave crushed him down, slamming him agains the bottom of the lifeboat.

He cursed, but stood up on his hands and knees and leaned over the boat to grab at another large table of wood Reo had picked from the smashed head half of the ship. As soon as he outstretched his arm, though, the merman grabbed his wrist instead.

“Your shoulder is bleeding again!” he yelled above the screeches of the Kraken and the screams of the prisoners, “We need to-!”

“No time!” Seijuro pulled away from his grip with a hiss, and Reo let him go but couldn’t wash the worry off his face. “Get me these guys’ keys and we’ll talk about my shoulder when they’ll all be safe!”

Mibuchi looked horrified, uncertain, and stood floating beside the raw raft for a long moment, scaring Akashi that he might stop bringing supplies for them to work with. Instead, Mayuzumi came by with another piece and Reo looked desperate but slipped underwater again.

Seijuro breathed in relief.

Their raft was badly assembled, precarious, _little_. It wouldn’t hold all the prisoner as it was and…

Akashi stole a look at the chain of men dangling against the Kraken’s tentacled, still up in the air. He imagined the pressure on their shoulders and wrists and winced, but only for a moment. He went back to work immediately after, hissing against the slipping rope, swelled with water, as he tried to tie some decent knots.

_Where the fuck is Tetsuya?!_ , he growled to himself, eyes stinging as his hair whipped his face with every breath of wind.

They were running out of time.

 

***

 

Hanamiya turned, his head snapping aside fast enough to break his neck, but all that came out of his lips was a soft whisper of wonder as his eyes met a cold pair of pale blue irises.

At first, Aomine didn’t recognize him, with the long hair fluctuating around his shoulders and a certain silvery light all over his face. And, well, the gills and those kind-of-but-probably-not fins instead of his ears. And the _fangs_. They shone a bit underwater, through soft plump lips that weren’t even trying to hide them, but that didn’t seem to bother Makoto. Oh, and the _tail._

As Daiki hissed “Tetsu?”, the captain turned on his knees. 

Tetsuya slipped out the water surface, his pale face framed with sparkling drops, and his eyelids half dropped on the irises in a sultry expression. His lips parted with a soft pop as he pushed himself upper.

Hanamiya seemed to have a moment of lucidity when the fins at the side of the creature’s head spread open and trembled slightly in tension, but Tetsuya exhaled and he froze.

_No_ , Kise realized. His heartbeat dropped when he realized the creature was _humming_ , softly, under his breath, far too low for them to hear the melody inside the words that he was pushing into the captain’s face.

With the ship inclined, Makoto could lean over the water as Tetsuya stood parallel to the floor and he stared dumbfounded at the creature in front of him. Once more, he seemed completely indifferent to his morphology, to the danger standing in his slightly open lips embracing gently words and notes.

Kuroko’s hand raised fluidly to Hanamiya’s cheeks, cradling them in a way that would have been soothing had he had another expression. _Any expression_ at all. Instead, his face was completely blank, devoid of any kind of emotion, and cold, analyzing. It made Kise’s skin crawl.

He pulled himself up, closer to man’s skin in an elegant embrace. His right hand caressed him and moved from the man’s cheek to the arm as his mouth brushed against the side of the neck, nuzzling it almost fondly.

Kuroko’s pupils abruptly shifted, turning into sharp vertical lines in the middle of the blue irises, like a snake’s, and his lips curled with a snarl to show long white shark-like fangs. His nails elongated into pointy claws that pierced the flesh, keeping his prey still as he dug his teeth in his throat.

Hanamiya screamed, but for a second. The next moment, Tetsuya had dragged him underwater already, leaving behind only muffled sounds and a blood-red swirling trail vanishing in the ocean.

The Kraken roared again.

“Aominecchi, watch out!”

 

***

 

Takao spluttered. Some mixture of saliva and snot hit the stone floor in front of him, but he didn’t even manage to feel disgusted. 

Curled up on his side, he strived to use his thin shirt and black pants to keep his own body heat closer, hiding his hands inside the sleeves and brushing his arms around his torso as fast as he could. He was half sure a mouse at tried to eat his foot at a certain point, but the boot had managed to protect him.

_Good, I hope it poisoned you,_ was his petty thought. If he were less cold and tired, he would probably be annoyed, angry even. He hadn’t managed to put a foot on his own barrack before Haizaki had sent someone to get him and dragged him to a forgotten cell in the Royal Palace. How many hours had it been since then, Takao had no idea, but he was pretty sure he had passed a night because the temperature had gone cold and then warm again. Now it was dropping again so maybe they were in the evening? He wasn’t sure.

He didn’t really care.

Haizaki would have the Emperor informed of what had happened and Takao’s chances of being moved to a crew closer to His Majesty — one that would travel for shorter periods of times, one that would come back to Rakuzan so often, and to the castle, and to its doctor — would turn to ashes.

_It’s not like there’s still a doctor worth visiting, anymore_ , supplied a voice in his mind. One that he was fast to strangle and kill and feel so guilty about.

Shin-chan’s glasses were still in his bag, in the quarters hopefully, and he missed the little comfort of holding onto them dearly. He curled up more as he called himself an idiot in a heated venomous whisper.

He jerked when a sound of footsteps echoed against the walls of the stairs right in front of his cell. Then he stiffened, eyes with suspect the shadow of a single man flickering fast in the orange shades of the torch fire.

He bit his lower lip when he recognized him.

Black boots holding white trousers and the blue shirt with the Royal Emblem proudly sewed right above the heart. The dark brown cape on his shoulders, tied roughly under a squandered jaw, did nothing to hide the big sword dangling from his side, but not even the blade could rival the sharpness of the glare made of blue eyes and thick eyebrows.

Takao felt chastised enough under just that look. “Sorry.”

“If you end up apologizing anyway, why don’t you just stop pulling this stupid shit, uh?!”

Takao curled up even more, his eyes fleeing from the confrontation with the other’s. Even the cold and the mice and the cell, even a reprimand of the Emperor himself!, seemed a better option than the scolding he was going to receive. He could tell, by experience.

“I’m sorry,” he just repeated quietly, not sure what else he could say for himself.

Kasamatsu sighed. “Just be grateful I intercepted Haizaki before he could obtain a meeting with the Emperor,” he grunted, slipping a ring full of keys from a hanger on his belt. “And that I hate that asshole.”

Takao almost smiled as he saw the gruff Captain of the Guards open the lock on his cell. Almost, but he refrained himself and simply pulled himself to sit up. He didn’t have a death wish, yet, or anyway not by Kasamatsu’s hand.

The man glared at him anyway, clearly having picked up on the aborted gesture, but shook his head as he stepped inside the cell to bend over him. “Careful,” he ordered as took his coat off and he slung it over Kazunari’s shoulders. Then, obeying his own order, he helped him stand up and take first hesitant steps outside the cell.

Takao smiled sadly, reminding far too well of how many times the man had done the same to him back when he was still training and Kasamatsu was his teacher. He was in infirmary once every five days, and not to see Shintarou, back then. “Thank you, Captain.”

Yukio huffed, apparently annoyed, be the hand he was keeping on the other’s small back moved to pat him on the head for a couple of times. “Whatever, idiot.”

It seemed to die there, at least it did for Takao, and the younger man focused on climbing the steps with lips pulled in a thin line and frown settled in between his eyebrows. He didn’t notice the other’s expression for a long time, until they were halfway in leaving the dungeons.

“Just don’t go die on me.”

The sentence was so sudden, Takao stopped abruptly in the middle of the stairs, eyes widened and confused. Then he noticed, Kasamatsu was _pale_. He couldn’t be described as thin, with the muscles from his training, but he looked somehow perished. His hair were kept slightly longer than he used to, his lips chapped with marks terribly similar to the mark of teeth, and there were bags under his eyes, dark and purple.

Takao knew that look.

Kasamatsu recognized, his, apparently, because he sighed. “Akashi’s ship,” he said tersely, moving to resume his movement or maybe just to prevent him from seeing the look in his eyes. “Kise was on board. He’d been in the kid’s crew for four years.”

“Oh.” Kazunari hadn’t known that. 

He used to know Kise, somehow, vaguely. Both being in the graces of Kasamatsu, they had met briefly a couple of times, even sparred with each other. In his memory, the blond soldier was cheerful, open, but deadly. They had gotten along with taunts and tricks until the moment he had shifted and become something close to an invincible genius of the sword. Takao had barely been able to _almost_ graze him once, such was the different in their skills. But he was also like a big baby when it came to Yukio himself and there was no way to deny even the Captain had grown to care for his student.

“Yeah,” Kasamatsu left it at that. He had shown a moment of weakness, Takao knew, that he would tuck under the carpet and forget of, probably until the moment he was alone in his quarters and could spend the night biting his lips and cursing fate for stealing a person he was so fond of from him. Now, he looked ahead with his head held high and he supported Kazunari’s weight in their climb.

Another thing Takao knew was the pain of loss, so he lower his gaze and resumed walking.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Yukio didn’t let him go. Instead, he accompanied him all the way to the outer courtyard, where the barracks for the passing soldiers were. 

Takao used to have a house for himself in the town. Midorima used to reach him there when the days had been too hectic for them to meet in the Palace. He hadn’t been there in years, but never sold it.

The sky was red, he noticed, and it painted the sky of a weird combination of black and oranges and yellow. It didn’t look poetic, it looked dangerous. Takao stared at it with a nervous knot settling in his stomach.

“A seagull,” Kasamatsu commented, pointing at a dark gray cloud curling on itself in a corner of the scenery, picturing a seagull with wings open and claws pointing and ready to catch a fish somewhere further than the horizon. “It’s a bad omen.”

Takao frowned. “I thought you weren’t superstitious.”

“I’m not,” Yukio shrugged, but it was a tired gesture, melancholic. “But could you blame me for being a pessimist, in these times?”

Kazunari shook his head, striving to put up half a smile just for the sake of both their minds, but when they resumed walking he stole one more glance at the shaped cloud.

He couldn’t deny the bad feeling twisting in his guts, either.

 

***

 

Kise had tried to escape the merman’s magic. Daiki was looking completely caught up in the sight of his friend’s new form and Ryouta had been scared, _terrified_ , that they would’ve ended up the same way of Hanamiya. Intrigued, enchanted and then _dead_.

He had turned his head from the show in front of them the moment Kuroko’s fangs and shown and bit his tongue to a bleeding as the pirate’s screams filled his ears. When they had stopped, he had almost gagged and his eyes had opened instinctively. The Kraken had screamed and his tentacle had shook the ship again, rapidly, and the pull had been the last needed.

The hook in the floor he had used to break his own chains was ripped out of its position by the weight of the four wares under the net and gravity made the rest.

“Aominecchi, watch out!” he had yelled as they rolled down the deck with the rambling sound of thunders, fast, fast, fast. Too fast for the men to move out of their path, especially with Aomine’s leg.

They weight hit them both head on, the net tangled with their limbs, and a second later Kise felt the hard impact of freezing cold water against his back.

He fell into complete darkness.

 

***

 

Aomine almost screamed when his leg was hit, first by the cargo and then by the salted water, but had been swimming in the sea before he learnt how to walk, his mother said, and he only took a deep breath before water engulfed them.

He opened his eyes immediately, grabbed Kise’s hand blindly and grabbed onto the net to try to climb with him the sinking bundle. The salt was stinging him and his wrists were still tied together, but ahead of himself he could see the last reflexes of the dying sun. Ryouta must have seen the same, because he let go of his hand to wrap the arm around his chest instead, and glad for his untied wrists he moved to try to pull them both to the surface. Both their ankles were still tied but if their kept their stride short and fast and worked together they surely could have made it anyway.

They barely moved above the weight before Daiki felt his ankle pulling him down.

Kise kept on kicking, surely feeling the resistance yet stubbornly ignoring it, but Aomine turned back anyway and he felt a tug of terror in his chest when he realized the stud of chain keeping his ankles together had been caught in the broken hook. A simple glance was enough to let him know that the more he moved his feet, the more he got stuck in and they were _sinking_ now, they were sinking slowly, the red above their head getting further.

He pulled at Kise’s armpit around his chest, trying to get him to either turn or let go, but Ryouta wouldn’t look at him. He swayed his arm around like crazy, as if it alone could have made the difference against the weight of four wares. They were filled with old rags, Aomine knew. Fairly light now, but the water must have been dripping inside the wares now and soon the clothes would be soaked and so much heavier.

_They’ll get us all the way to the bottom like a fucking anchor_ , he realized. His body was all aching, his lungs were starting to frizzle with the lack of air and sure he could resist longer but what difference would it have made? 

If Kise kept on pulling, he couldn’t untangle himself; and even if he did, Aomine wasn’t sure he could move his freezing hands well enough for the task. The net looked more and more like pitchy tentacles pulling him to his death. And Ryouta with him, because they were still together with that stupid chain connecting their wrists.

Aomine had always been all the flaws Satsuki’s mother could think of, but never in his life he would have wanted others to get hurt because of him. His sister’s loss had brought to him a guilt he didn’t want to feel ever again. 

Thus, he struggled against Ryouta’s arm as hard as he could, trashing in the attempt to make him lose his grip. Kise kicked him in the spine, _definitely on purpose_ , as if to tell him to stop, but Aomine ignored him and focused only on the weird feelings in his lungs growing more uncomfortable by the second. He elbowed the soldier in the side, avoiding the chest not to risk making him exhale any precious air.

_This idiot is thicker than he looks!_ , he growled in his mind, three quarters annoyed but maybe a quarter impressed. Completely desperate, though, because the redness of the sky was fading, further and further. Why couldn’t Ryouta just fucking _let go_?! There was no point in dying together, for all the salt in the Dead Sea!

He flailed and almost sputtered out some air when, as he tried to slip out of Kise’s grip by kicking around aimlessly, he felt a strange short vibration and his legs suddenly went around.

Daiki stilled, confused, and looked down as he tried to make sense of the feeling.

The first thing he noticed, quite obviously, was the wares sinking fast. The second was that they were moving now, _heading to the surface_ , pushed by Kise’s tentative kicks and swings of his arm. The third made him lose his mind.

There was something heavy and sharp in her hand, like some kind of stone that had been levigated to make some kind of rudimental weapon. She was naked, pink air lazily dancing around her head and torso, but from her waist downward there was no trace left of the pale legs she used to rest on his lap, of the think ankles she was always demanding for a massage to, of the feet she used to kick him in the shins with when he would make some vulgar remark. But her eyes, no. Her eyes were the same, round and open and the shade of a gentle blush or of plump lips or of the darkest spot on a soft peach. Pink, like her mouth opened in a gentle, almost nostalgic, smile.

Aomine pushed against Kise’s grip with twice the strength from before, incredulous, shocked. What was she doing there?! She was alive, a merman but alive?! Why had she never come to him, then?!

He opened his mouth as if he could call her name, mindless of the salted water around him, but she was faster with hers and Daiki froze as a single crystal note rang into the very core of his mind, from inside his head, in between his ears. It was melodic and soothing and reassuring and made him go limp, _unwilling_ to fight the arm around his chest anymore, and Kise’s body pulled his further and further, toward the surface.

Aomine blinked. He wanted to swim toward her, he really wanted, but at the same time he…didn’t? He couldn’t understand and his eyes went to the only person he thought had the answer.

Satsuki looked at him like she was telling him goodbye. She placed a soft kiss on her webbed fingertips and blew it toward him, making the fins on the sides of her face lift and open like fans, trembling a bit.

 

***

 

Akashi was trembling in cold and pain by the time the umpteenth wave washed over his impromptu raft, but he clenched his teeth and staggered back on his feet, trying to move back to the centre of the structure. He couldn’t move his right arm anymore, at all, and it dangled at his side lifelessly, but he wouldn’t spare it a glance.

He had long since noticed Kise wasn’t at any end of the chain. He had hoped, stealing glances every now and then, but the familiar body of his friend was nowhere to be seen. Refusing to accept that, he had kept on working and scanning the sea.

After minutes, Kuroko had jumped out of the water and Akashi had stared, dumbfounded for a moment, in seeing his elegant shape arching in the air against the fading pink sky, surrounded by drops like precious tears. Their eyes had met for a second, a glance that had been fond and reassuring, before Tetsuya had splashed within the sea again, at the other side of the almost two meters wide raft, and vanished within its depths. It had been so beautiful it had taken Seijuro a moment to realize the merman had dropped something beside his thigh.

He ran an arm over his face to take the water away and he widened his eyes when he recognized the rusty shape of a keys, held together with a metal ring. He almost dived to grab them, clenching his numb stiff fingers around the thin bars, and he would always deny but a relieved sob escaped his throat in that moment.

He turned on his knees, his hands grabbing on the edge of the raft closer to the flailing Kraken. “HEY!” he yelled, trying to make himself heard, but the beast screamed again and the sound covered up everything else. Akashi opened his mouth again anyway, he would not give up now!

A soft hum, so low it was possible he could hear it, yet there, in the middle of his brain, in the depths of his mind, to soothe his thoughts away and placate his tempestuous feelings. It was just a bunch of skipping notes, playing like silver bells in a diamond grass, and there were words but for some reason they wouldn’t stick, like a blurred sight in thick fog.

Akashi blinked when it suddenly stopped and all he could hear was silence all around him. 

_Silence._

He jerked and one of his knees went up immediately, as if to bring him to his feet on the precarious boat. He had no idea how much time it had passed so he lifted his head, eyes widened, to look for whatever might have happened, but he stopped.

The Kraken was shrinking slowly, a tired kid falling asleep, and his tentacles were moving lazily, letting got of pieces of ship to sink underwater carefully. The one holding the chain of prisoners moved closer to Akashi’s raft and the men that had been screaming in terror and pain since a moment ago were now all quiet and meek, their gazes unfocused and fazed.

Seijuro stumbled into his useless arm as he crawled to a side to let the creature lay the first ones, at the two opposite ends of the chain, on the raft. One was Midorima, completely unconscious, while the other that Wakamatsu man Aomine always bickered with. With hands steady despite their paleness and the cuts and bruises all over them, he opened the locks he could, grateful for the numbers carved in both them and their respective keys, and then pushed the cuffs outboard to let other people be laid on the structure.

Wakamatsu blinked sometimes before jerking as if he had suddenly been pinched.

“What the fuck…?!” He turned, paled in seeing the Kraken so close, then waited as he saw the beast helping Murasakibara’s and another man’s bodies on the same pathetic lifeboat of him. He looked at Akashi, ready to demand for explanations, but he found hims biting his lips as he tried to roll Atsushi’s awake but unresponsive body so that he could free his hands. He cussed with himself, but grabbed the giant and moved him around.

Seijuro stole a glance at him, but he shrugged. “I’m not picky, as long as I make it out of this alive.”

He was half certain the Navy Officer muttered something as he rolled his eyes, something that sounded suspiciously like “ _merchants_ ”, which would make no sense at all since he was sure he hadn’t told him what his profession had been before being caught. Still, he suppressed the shiver running down his spine, and focused on the matter at hand.

 

***

 

Night came fast as they freed prisoners after prisoners, the Kraken patiently laying them down at their pace, and when they threw the last rings overboard and the chains sunk without a noise there were no celebrations. Everybody was holding their wrists, shoulders, ankles, and looking around at their helpless comrades in that nutshell of a boat that seemed a child’s play kept together with raisin and scraps of thread. 

Akashi had collapsed beside Midorima after Murasakibara had told him how he had taken care of Kise, before he was lost with Aomine. He laid beside the doctor brushing hair out of his face, caressing the feverish skin of his face to soothe the nightmares away and touching the little mark of the eyeglasses on his nose. He felt tired and empty, not even room for rage or despair, and everything hurt but his eyes stung more as he tried to hold himself together, to not think that the man before him was all that was left of his friend, the _best_ he could ever hope for, probably.

No merfolk had come back. Tetsuya had vanished after leaving the keys, Reo and Mayuzumi had never come back from their last trip to get supplies and Momoi hadn’t been seen since the very beginning of that tiring night. Akashi didn’t know what to think of that, he felt too weak for both trust and suspect, so he just laid down and closed his eyes, hoping for the cradling embrace of the waves to take him away, wherever.

It didn’t even matter anymore.

He jerked when the whole structure creaked, calling cusses and half yells from all over the place, and he sat up immediately, eyes wide when he realized Sakurai had stumbled — almost thrown himself, really, with how weak with blood loss he was — from one side to the other of the structure, ending up in Wakamatsu’s lap like a child or a lover.

The merchant flushed a deep crimson, sputtering incoherences before settling for a single: “What the fuck?!”

Sakurai grabbed onto his shoulders, though, and instead of answering he lifted a hand. Seijuro tried not to stare too much at the disgusting blisters and wounds around his wrist or how the whole limb was trembling up to the very shoulder. “W-What… the-re…”

Wakamatsu was the first to turn and doing so he moved his shoulder aside enough for Akashi to see what Sakurai had been trying to point at.

“Ryouta…” It slipped past his lips before he could stop himself; his face morphed into a mask of relief and despair at the same time, bringing him on the verge of tears against his will; and he didn’t realize moving, but he was already leaning over the board beside Wakamatsu, bent so much at his waist that he was just one breath of wind from falling out. “RYOUTA!”

Kise was leaning on a piece of bench of a shard of the side of the ship, his trunk and one of his arms slumped over it as he obstinately carried something darker under the other, keeping it beside him on his precarious passage. His hair were dump and stuck to his face, but Akashi could still recognize the moment his topaz eyes open, many seconds later, and he difficulty lifted them to look for the source of the voice.

When he found it, his head lifted, slowly but almost in a snap if compared to his eyelids movements, and Akashi would have jumped back in the water, working arm or not, but Wakamatsu had grabbed him before he could.

“Let go of me!” he roared, all the energy and commanding strength from before his capture coming back as his objective came so close to him, and he struggled and he kicked and he would have overturn the whole structure if he had to, he would have punched the merchant if his arm allowed him. “Let me go! Ryouta! Ryouta, we’re here! Ryouta!”

Kise seemed to gurgle something. He spat or vomited water that dripped down his chin, viscous and sticky, and he had a spasm, then another and another, as he willed his legs to move and kick to bring him closer to safety.

“Ryouta!”

There was a splashing sound and for a moment the whole raft dangled, its equilibrium completely broken as the biggest weight left it.

Murasakibara emerged again a few meters ahead of them and his arms were long enough to bring him to Kise in a handful of swings. He grabbed the piece of wood and said something that made Kise tremble a nod and fix his grip on the bundle at his side, rolling it enough to reveal short blue hair and tanned skin.

“Fuck, that’s Aomine!” Wakamatsu gulped and held Sakurai closer as the younger whimpered. The merchant had honestly no idea what had happened, but the day Sakurai had arrived and entered Daiki’s cell, the man had kind of started bullying him out of troubles, in some weird way of showing care. It made sense for the guy, the youngest of them all in his pale seventeen years, to be so attached to the grumpy pirate. Even him, for as much as he would deny it to the end of Earth and return, was at a loss for a moment in seeing the moveless body.

Akashi gulped, even if his throat felt after shouting as if someone had ran sandpaper all over it forcefully, but he waited for Murasakibara to pull the piece of wood and it’s occupants close to the lifeboat enough for the rest of the men to get them. He ignored his injured arm completely to swing the other around Kise to pull him on board, and someone whistled in surprise when he managed, as if he wasn’t every inch the Official he had been appointed as. He noticed Wakamatsu had pulled Daiki on board too only when it was time to open Ryouta’s fingers from their grip on the pirate’s shirt.

Seijuro had never been one for closure, but he realized he had been whispering nonsenses, empty “you’re safe, I’m here, you’re alive, let go, you’re safe, you’re safe, you’re safe now, you’re safe”, only when the guy in his arms chuckled.

Head on his captain’s shoulder and his dump hair soaking his shirt even more, Kise’s pale face morphed into a tired smile as his eyes opened again to take a look at Seijuro’s face. “T-That is my line,” he croaked, “Akashicchi.”

Akashi let the voice and the name fill him with relief and he laughed. He laughed openly if exhaustedly as he pulled Kise closer and buried his face in his friend’s shoulder too. If he cried, the shirt was too wet for Ryouta to tell anyway. 

He held him close for minutes that seemed hours, the time it took for the moon to rise, the wind to get colder and the night to assault them. He shifted to shield him from most of the wind, as he saw Murasakibara do for Midorima and Sakurai, and that was how he was the first to notice the lights.

At first he thought them starts. Warmer, yellowish instead of the most ethereal white, but starts. Only when they grew closer he recognized the shape carrying them.

“A ship…” he murmured, his voice almost unrecognizable to his own ears, raw, but he didn’t care. “Who…?” 

A bell was ringing on the deck of the approaching ship and long “OI!” finally reached their ears. Akashi tried to answer, but his throat failed him, and it Wakamatsu who returned the call, shaking his arms as if he could be seen in the darkness.

Seijuro wanted to chastise him for thinking so foolishly, but someone yelled “There! There!” and he sealed his lips. Torches pointed in their directions and buzzing of voices grew louder. Even so, he could hear the sound of roped and the splash of lifeboats being released.

He held Kise closer, still unsure.

“Oi, on the raft!” His head snapped up and his shoulder dropped a bit as he recognize the voice. “Is that you, pompous asshole?!”

He didn’t bother taking offense and instead chucked to himself, nodding to Wakamatsu.

“We’ve got plenty of those, but the red-head here says you’re looking for him!”

Kagami’s booming laughter came to them filled with relief. “Hold on thigh, guys! We’re coming to get you!” 

“One last effort!”

“Almost there, almost there!”

“You’re going home, guys, don’t give up now!”

Akashi let the encouragement from the ship, half true probably and half desperate in the attempt to gauge the state of the prisoners, lull him to relax. He held Kise closer and pressed his face in his hair, ignoring how dirty and salted they were, to breath the faint note of his friend’s scent under all the other smells.

Kise, stupid stubborn idiot, stirred and opened his eyes in a crack. He tried to ask something with a seagull’s croaking voice, definitely in no better shape than Akashi after all the water he had gulped dragging himself and Aomine to the first floating thing he had found. Akashi was quite sure he was demanding to know what was happening.

“Rescuers,” he forced out for himself, striving to be comprehensible, “Help.”

Ryouta looked at him for a moment, blinking, before suddenly his eyes lit up with understanding. He squirmed to roll on his stomach and then to get on all four, just to check for himself, and when he effectively saw the lifeboats approaching them he brought his hand to grip on Akashi’s, on his shoulder to hold him up.

He hugged his captain like he hadn’t been in his arms until a moment ago, and who cared about anything he cried on his shoulder, feeding on the warmth of the hands now carding in his hair, even if they pulled painfully at knots at every single movement.

The tortures, the captivity, the nightmares, it was all done for. They were going back home, to their lives, they were free.

They were _safe_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't tell you how sorry I am for how long it took me to update this. Exams took over and I really needed to focus on the last one I took, since it was extremely important for the path I'd like to take. I'm still sorry, though, therefore this chapter is 2k words longer than usual (not because I was scared that if I were to cut you off with a cliffhanger you'd have killed me, absolutely no, who do you take me for?).
> 
> At least I got you the final solution you wanted, right? ^-^ Would you like me to tell you next is the last chapter and everybody lives happily ever ever after? Because it probably won't. I've still got something that I want to happen. I may manage to solve it all in next chapter or not. But longest case, with two more chapters this is done. I think I only now realized that, to be honest. I'm almost done. Wow. I'm impressed. Okay, I'll keep the tearjerker for last Authoress' Notes, but anyway. Be prepared, we're almost there.
> 
> Still, I'm not entirely satisfied with how this came out. The action scene with Aomine and Kise was as messy as I imagined the ship to be -.- It probably also sounds far longer than how it really took in time to happen, which is bad to say the least. I'm sorry about it, I'm really so bad with battle scenes. I hope it didn't break the pace so bad it made you hate the chapter.
> 
> As always, I don't know when I'll update next, but I'll try to be fast, since I'm excited to wrap this up and see you the ends I have planned for the different characters. 
> 
> See you soon, then!,  
> Agap
> 
>  
> 
> P.S. For anything, Tumblr: agapantoblu.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> I regret nothing v.v
> 
>  
> 
> [Tumblr: agapantoblu.tumblr.com]


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